


A Gift

by E_Salvatore



Series: A Surprise [2]
Category: Digimon Tamers
Genre: A baby for the OTP, F/M, Family, Fluff, Outtakes, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-02 18:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2822558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/E_Salvatore/pseuds/E_Salvatore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just in time for the holidays, here’s my Christmas present to readers of A Surprise: seven outtakes that take place before, during and after the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**One**

**_Two months after the prologue_ **

* * *

The doorbell rings, and Jen counts until ten before he reaches for the doorknob. He’s not sure if that’s enough to hide the fact that he’s been standing by the door for the last ten minutes, but it seems impossible to wait any longer. The door swings open and he’s rewarded with his first glimpse of Ruki in five weeks.

“Is everyone gone?” She asks, greeting him as if they’d seen each other just yesterday, as if they’re nothing more than friends. Her fingers are curled around one strap of her backpack while the other hand reaches up to undo the ponytail she wore to school.

Jen nods. “I’m all alone in this big, empty-” She kisses him as soon as the word _empty_ escapes his lips and the force with which Ruki throws herself against him is enough to push Jen over the threshold, back into his home.

“Well, hi there,” He smiles against her lips, reaching over her shoulder to shut the door. “I missed you too.”

“Bed,” Ruki orders as she wraps her arms around his neck. “Now.”

The way she brushes off his words chills Jen for just a moment, and he feels the weight of everything Ruki won’t let him say to her come crashing down upon him again. But then she pulls him closer to kiss him, and Jen decides not to dwell on it. _Not yet,_ Ruki said once. He’ll hold on to that.

She won’t stop laughing as they blindly stumble into his room, tripping over his sister’s misplaced shoes, an end table and a forgotten pen on the floor. Jen loves the way she keeps laughing even as he kisses her almost as much as he loves Ruki herself, and he’s very careful not to tell her either of those things.

 .

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

“You should open the window,” Ruki suggests after, when she leans against the headboard and draws him to her, prompting Jen to rest his head on her shoulder. “Air the room out.”

The feeling of her blunt nails scraping against his scalp as she combs her fingers through his hair is almost enough to lull Jen to sleep, but he blinks at the sound of her voice. “What?”

Ruki sighs. “So that it doesn’t smell like _us_ ,” She points out what should have been obvious. “And change the sheets, if you can.”

 _Oh,_ Jen realizes. Ruki’s covering up their tracks, but he’s too distracted by how casual she is about the whole thing. He shouldn’t say anything, he has no right but- “You know what you’re doing.” His tone is too light for it to be anything but forced, and there’s an unspoken question that can’t be ignored. Maybe there’s a hint of worry, of jealousy. But there shouldn’t be; she’s always been very clear that they owe each other nothing, that he shouldn’t expect anything from her.

“We usually do this in my room, idiot,” Ruki says and it’s accompanied by an eye-roll and a sharp, almost painful tug at his hair before her fingers resume their previous, gentler movements. It may not be the most conventional way to say _there’s no one else, dumbass,_ but Jen’s known her long enough to know what she’s saying anyway.

There’s nothing he can say out loud to acknowledge Ruki’s unspoken assurance, so he pulls himself up to kiss her instead. When Jen pulls away, she chases after his lips for one last peck before her back slumps against the headboard again. He considers settling down next to her but decides to get up and open the window, as instructed.

“What time is it?” Ruki asks, stretching her arms out. Her eyes close as she works out some kinks in her neck and Jen takes the opportunity to smile at the way her hair, pressed against the headboard, sticks out in a spiky mess reminiscent of their childhood. And then he just smiles at the sight of Ruki in his bed, but he quickly averts his eyes when her own open once more.

“Five,” Jen tells her after a quick look at the alarm clock on his nightstand, coming to sit next to her.

“Two hours before your family gets back,” Ruki says, pulling a sheet with her as she swings her feet over the bed and plants them firmly on the ground, securing the sheet around herself before she stands up. “I think it’s time for a shower.”

Jen wants to crawl back into bed and convince Ruki that they can stay put for another thirty minutes at least, but instead he gets up as well and roots around for his pants. “I’ll go get you a towel,” He tells Ruki once he’s half-dressed. “And new sheets,” He adds, more as a reminder to himself than anything else.

Ruki says something about tracking down her clothes and he leaves her to it as he slips out into the hallway, heading for the laundry room. His mother always keeps fresh linens there, and Jen has no trouble locating a clean towel and a new set of bed sheets. When he gets back with a bundle of white cloth in his arms, he finds Ruki standing with her back to the door. She’s got some clothes in one hand while the other holds up her sheet, and Jen’s surprised to find that she’s apparently staring at his computer.

Her ears pick up on his steps as Jen approaches her, and Ruki turns to him with a scowl. “Do you want to tell me how that got there?” She questions and it’s then that Jen realizes she wasn’t staring at his computer, but at her shirt draped over his computer.

“I have no idea,” Jen grins, though he vaguely remembers tossing the shirt somewhere. Now he knows where it landed. He hands Ruki the towel and turns to dump the armful of sheets on his bed.

“Yeah, right,” Ruki rolls her eyes, picking up the shirt. She holds up her skirt and turns to him with an accusing look. “I found this under the bed.”

Jen shrugs. “Maybe you kicked it there,” He suggests innocently. Ruki hates the skirt and usually changes out of her school uniform as soon as she can. Jen’s quite fond of the thing though, since it’s easier to deal with than Ruki’s preferred jeans. “Any idea where my clothes are?”

“In a pile near the wall,” Ruki glares. “All of them. Because unlike _some people_ , I don’t see the need to throw clothes all over the room once I’ve taken them off.”

“Right,” Jen mutters sheepishly, picking up his clothes. “So maybe I got a bit carried away.” Ruki huffs, but he spots a little smile tugging at her lips. He suspects it’s all an act and Ruki actually loves that he’d been too caught up in her to pay attention to unimportant things like where her clothes landed, but Jen changes the subject anyway, just to be safe. “So how was your trip, anyway?”

“Exhausting,” Ruki says after a moment’s thought, settling on the least whiny way to put it. Letting her mother drag her around Europe for five weeks was a lot more than just exhausting, and she could string together a complaint worthy of the most spoiled brat out there. But it’s not the worst way to spend a summer, as Renamon frequently reminded her during their trip. “I’m just glad to be home.”

“I’m glad, too,” Jen tells her, though he keeps his back to her as he changes the sheets. It doesn’t seem like a sentiment Ruki would appreciate, but she surprises him by dropping a kiss on his cheek before she walks out of the room. The bathroom lights are on when he passes by on his way to the laundry room, and Jen assumes she’ll be half-done with her shower by the time he’s started the washing machine.

When he walks by the bathroom on his way back to his room though, the door is wide open and Ruki is still wrapped up in her sheet. “Are you coming in or not?” She asks bluntly, her casual voice laced with nothing but a hint of impatience. Jen gapes at her for five seconds, then nods in a jerky movement and nearly runs back to the laundry room to get himself a towel. Ruki drops the act and laughs when he shuts the door behind them with a bit more force than necessary.

 .

 .

 .

 .

 .

Two hours turn out to be just long enough for them to get showered and dressed, with a bit of time to spare for them to fold Jen’s sheets after a round in the dryer and hide them away with all the other bed sheets.

They settle down in the living room and Ruki pulls a math textbook out of her bag, ignoring Jen’s confused look. “Renamon’s decided to pick up French,” She tells him out of the blue, flipping through the textbook. “I’m learning with her.”

“Oh, good,” Jen says as he sits down, careful to put a respectable distance between himself and Ruki. “We can go to that fancy restaurant then, the one with the menu only in French and snobby waiters who won’t translate it for you.”

“As long as you’re paying,” Ruki shrugs, and he scoffs because she’s never let him pay for any of her meals. One time Jen surprised her with a birthday cake, and she insisted on paying him back. It’s almost as if whatever they have will magically turn into a full-blown relationship if he buys her a meal.

“Okay, so this is the chapter I’m having trouble with,” She tells him, sliding closer so that they can both see the textbook. Jen’s confused but he plays along.

“You’re a bit ahead of us,” He frowns.

“Private school, remember?”

“Yeah,” Of course he remembers; Ruki complains about it all the time. “Give me a minute; I think I can help you. I read ahead during summer break.”

Ruki rolls her eyes just as the front door opens, and it’s then that Jen fully appreciates her sense of timing as his parents walk in to hear her say: “ _Of course_ you read ahead for math.”

“He’s hopeless, I tell you!” Janyu booms as everyone expresses amusement at Jen, and none of them even realize that Ruki’s sitting too close to him. “Maybe you can get his head off school sometimes, Ruki. See if you can convince him to be a normal teenager.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Ruki grins. “I think Jen’s incapable of thinking about anything other than school and Digimon.” They both know school and Digimon were far from his mind this afternoon, but of course the whole point of Ruki’s act is so that they’re the only ones who know that. Jen hands her the textbook as they both stand up, and Ruki slides it back into her bag.

“Now, Ruki, don’t leave on our account,” Janyu tells her as they meet by the front door.

Mayumi nods with a warm smile. “Why don’t you stay for dinner?” She suggests.

“Thank you for the offer,” Ruki says with a smile of her own as she steps into her shoes. “But I promised my family I’d join them for dinner tonight.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want to keep you from them,” Mayumi accepts her excuse. “Some other time, then?”

“And bring Renamon along,” Janyu requests. “It’s always fascinating to hold a conversation with her.”

“Some other time,” Ruki agrees.

Jen slips past his parents. “Come on, I’ll walk you down.”

Ruki exchanges good-nights and good-byes with Jen’s parents. They extend the dinner invitation to her mother and grandmother, and ask her to pass along their best regards. She can feel their eyes following her and Jen all the way down the hall, until they step into the lift. As soon as the metal doors close behind them, Ruki grabs the front of his shirt and pulls him close enough to kiss.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Jen grins, putting some distance between them when Ruki lets go of his shirt. “But what was that for?”

“I realized I can’t kiss you in front of your parents,” Ruki shrugs. “So of course that made me want to.”

“Of course,” Jen echoes with a laugh as he reaches out to hook one finger around the strap of Ruki’s bag and pull her to him. He’s been getting better at this – reaching out and kissing her first, settling his hands on her waist and holding her in place when she playfully tries to duck away. Now that he knows for sure that Ruki wants him to kiss her, that she welcomes his hands on her waist as much as he likes the way she slinks her arms around his neck… now that he knows Ruki would never actually pull away from him, she just pretends to because sometimes they behave like any other seventeen-year-olds would in this situation – now he can kiss her without stopping every few seconds to make sure he hasn’t pushed her too far.

There’s a soft chime, and they jump apart just as the doors slide open. A family with two young children greets Jen as they step into the lift, and he bids them a nice evening as he and Ruki walk out. They walk side by side to the front door with their shoulders barely brushing, even though Jen wants to wrap one arm around her waist and pull her closer. His family knows almost everyone in the building and two of his neighbors are already observing him with thinly-veiled curiosity as he walks a girl out.

Ruki plasters on a fake smile and acknowledges Jen’s nosy neighbors with a nod as they pass by. As soon as the women turn away, she leans in to whisper in his ear. “My family’s gone all day this Friday.”

After a quick check to make sure the coast is clear – the neighbors have vanished – Jen swoops in to kiss her cheek. “I’ll see you then,” He smiles. As they near the building’s front door, he realizes Friday is three days away. Ruki got back late this Sunday, and she was too jet-lagged yesterday to do anything other than crash the minute she got back from school. This is the first Jen’s seen of her in more than a month, and it’s not enough to tide him through until Friday.

So he takes a risk. “Can I walk you home from school tomorrow?”

She stares at him, questioning eyes wide with a warning. “You can’t stay over; my family will be home.”

“I know, I didn’t ask because _-” I didn’t ask because I want to sleep with you_ is what he should say, but it sounds crude even though he means to be anything but.

Ruki gets it though, what he’s too embarrassed to say out loud. “My mom has a photo shoot at home; a magazine wants to capture her in her element or something,” She explains. It’s nice of her to let him down easy, but Jen could have done with a simple _no_. And that’s usually more of Ruki’s thing anyway, so why- “You can walk me to the park. I’m going to hang out there until the photographers leave.”

Oh. It’s a _yes_.

Jen must look as surprised as he feels, because Ruki waits patiently for him to speak. “Okay.” He says belatedly, blurting out his agreement as soon as he realizes what Ruki’s offering. He’s probably smiling like an idiot right now but that’s alright because she’s smiling too.

“Okay,” Ruki echoes with a decisive nod. “Just wait for me around the corner.”

She finds him around the corner as instructed the next day, and they hang out in the park until her home is safe to return to. The day after is hotter than September has any right to be, and Jen surprises her with ice cream. A week later, she catches sight of a blue umbrella just around the corner, big enough to shield the both of them from the storm. With the umbrella hiding them from prying schoolgirl eyes, Ruki kisses him in public for the very first time.

Walking home alone becomes a thing of the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you guys think of the outtakes so far? This is the first of seven, and I’ll be posting one daily for the next two days, then two a day for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day because CHRISTMAS!
> 
> I’ve got all seven chapters written out because I don’t think I’ll have much time to write in the days leading up to Christmas but if there’s anything you’d like to see, leave a prompt and we’ll see how it goes.


	2. Two

**Two**

**_Three years before the first chapter_ **

* * *

When a dozen knocks sound against her door in quick succession at one in the morning, Ruki briefly reconsiders her decision to live off-campus, in an apartment building where crazy people can pound on your door at ungodly hours. She approaches the door warily, and Renamon is careful to keep herself out of sight, yet no more than three steps away.

Opening her door to the sight of a shockingly, scandalously drunk Jen is pretty much the most unexpected moment of her year so far.

“What are you doing here at one in the morn- wow,” Ruki interrupts herself as she catches sight of a very flushed Jen swaying from side to side as he tries to remain upright. “The guys got you drunk.”

“ _Drunk_ might be too strong of a word,” Jen protests as Renamon emerges from behind the door to witness this for herself.

“Too weak of a word, maybe,” Ruki mutters as she and Renamon drag their unexpected visitor into the apartment. She quickly locks the door behind her, leaving the fox to guide Jen to the sofa. “Wait, how did you get here? Don’t tell me you had Takato drive you to my building.”

Jen plops himself down on the sofa as Renamon disappears into the kitchen. “Don’t worry, I stopped him two streets away and said I wanted to walk back to my dorm.” It’s a ten-minute walk from Ruki’s off-campus apartment to their college’s front gates, but Jen’s building is nearly twice that distance and she can’t believe that Takato would leave his obviously drunk friend to fend for himself.

She crosses her arms. “He let you walk home _alone_?”

“He was too busy handling Hirokazu and Kenta. You should’ve seen them, Ruki; they’re completely wasted.” Jen grins. “Besides, he thought I was sober. And I am… kind of.”

“You’re about as far from sober as anyone can get,” Ruki points out. “In fact, I’d say _you’re_ wasted.” She scrunches up her nose. “How the hell would Takato think you’re sober? You smell like you took a bath in ten different kinds of alcohol.”

“No, I don’t,” Jen says. He turns to Renamon, who’s returned with a glass of water. “Do I smell like I took a bath in ten different kinds of alcohol?”

Renamon considers the question for ten seconds. “I would say seven,” She decides, turning to Ruki. “Can you handle him on your own?”

“I don’t need any handling!” Jen interrupts. “I’m pretty close to sober. I walked it off.”

“Yeah, right,” Ruki scoffs, but she tells Renamon to get back to sleep anyway; so far, drunk Jen seems almost like normal Jen, just a bit more stubborn and with noticeably slurred speech. “Come on, you,” She says once Renamon’s out of sight, pulling Jen to his feet. “It’s almost two and I’m not going to let you walk back like this, so you can stay. Just make sure no one sees you in the morning.” Jen’s insistent knocking on her door probably woke up half the building and alerted everyone to her midnight visitor, but that’s something she’ll deal with tomorrow.

“I’m fine,” Jen insists, holding out both hands as he tests his own balance. “See?” He grins when the room stays perfectly still. “I’m fine. I can walk back later.”

“Later?” Ruki questions with an amused lilt. She has no idea what’s going through Jen’s mind but if he’s not going to sleep within the next five minutes, then he can walk himself home right now. There’s only one other reason for him to stay and as amusing as this whole thing has been, she’s not really curious to know what it would be like to deal with drunk Jen in bed.

“I want to talk to you first. That’s why I’m here,” He explains, plopping himself down on the sofa again. Jen pats the space next to him and Ruki accepts his invitation with a sigh. At least he doesn’t stink _that_ badly of alcohol; even Renamon was exaggerating earlier. “Look, I didn’t get myself completely drunk, okay? I just needed to get tipsy enough so that I wouldn’t be scared to tell you this.”

She’s got a terrible feeling about this already, but Ruki motions for Jen to go on. There’s no point in guessing what he’s here to tell her; she’ll just drive herself mad with the possibilities. Those possibilities could be real, though. Why else would Jen need to get himself drunk for, as far as she knows, the very first time in his life?

“Okay,” Jen says, looking her in the eye. He draws in a huge gulp of air. “Here it goes.” His hand grips one of Ruki’s, and she tries to keep the dread from showing in her eyes. She’s always known this day would come but-

“I love you.”

It’s worse than she thought it would be. A sound gets caught in her throat, something that’s a cross between a frustrated cry and a defeated sob, and Ruki wrenches her hand out of Jen’s as she turns away from him.

“No, hear me out!” Jen goes on, trying to pull her back even as Ruki gets to her feet. “I do, I really do. And I know you don’t want me to, I know you don’t want to hear it but why, Ruki? Out of all the people in this world, why am I not supposed to love you? You’re just as beautiful and kind and smart as anyone out there, even if you don’t want to see it.”

Ruki keeps her eyes shut tight and her back to him as she tries to figure something out. If Jen thinks he’s in love with her, then letting him go on this way is entirely out of the question. She’s not going to give him blind hope and string him along, make him believe they have an actual shot at working out.

“I think you’re just like everyone out there,” He rambles on, trying to convince Ruki. “I think you could be, if you wanted to. We could be like everyone else, Ruki. We can do this. If you’d just let us try, we could be happy, like normal people.”

Normal people. Normal people date and they fall in love, they get married, they buy a house and they have kids and a dog, they build a life together. Jen has always been normal to her, and of course Ruki knew someday he would want those things, just as she’s always known she can’t give him any of that. She doesn’t _want_ any of that. It just hurts that he’s starting to want those things _now_ , because she thought she’d be able to hold onto him for a bit longer.

“No.”

Jen is undeterred. “We could do it, Ruki,” He says again, thinking the conviction in his voice will shake her. “I know we can, if we just-”

“No!” She turns back to him, eyes wide with conflicted emotions she chooses to write off as frustration. “We can’t, don’t you get it? I don’t _want_ to. I don’t want any of this.”

“But I love you,” Jen states, as if that should be enough. It _should_ be, she knows. If it were anyone else he’d gone and fallen for, it would have been enough. Even now Ruki thinks of how easy it would be, to let Jen say these things and make her these promises, to let things go on as they are and see where life takes them. It could be easy; they could do it. But for how long? How long until he realizes that her heart isn’t really in buying houses and having pets and raising kids? How long until he asks for kids, and keeps asking until one day he realizes he should ask someone else? How long until Jen realizes that she doesn’t even know the first thing about this love he thinks they could share?

“If you think,” Ruki says slowly, trying to bury the thought of a cold bed with no one to pull the blanket up for her. “That I would ever want to be normal, that I would say it back to you and we’d be happy and I don’t know, build a life together… then no, I don’t think you love me, Jen.”

It’s silent for a while, so quiet her ears ring. Her denial of his feelings is as good as a slap to Jen’s face, and he looks just as hurt as he would have if she’d actually struck him. Still, he persists. She’s always been fond of him for that, for the way that Jen won’t let himself be talked out of anything, the way he can make a person see his side of things. But tonight, all he’s doing is drawing things out. And it _hurts_ , Ruki realizes suddenly as he speaks. “Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I? You’re a good person, Ruki, and I don’t understand why you think I can’t love you. You’re nice and you’re kind and-”

“I’m _not!_ ” It comes out louder than she’d intended, and for a moment Ruki’s convinced she’s woken Renamon up and her partner will be here to witness this mess. “I’m not.” She says again, quiet and calm and composed. It’s not an argument; her words are not up for debate. This is a statement, a fact. “I don’t know what sort of imaginary woman you’ve built up in your mind,” Ruki tells Jen quietly, watching him lose the almost manic glint in his eyes, the spark in him that had him so convinced that everything would turn out alright. “But she’s not me. And you’re in love with her, not the person I really am.”

“Ruki…” This is what she wanted: for him to finally see things her way, to give in and give up, to realize that there’s nothing more he can say. But Ruki won’t deny that it stings, the fact that he can’t contest her claim because they both know she really isn’t the person Jen thought she was. She smiles at people and she’s polite and sometimes she’ll help an old lady cross the road but that doesn’t make her good and nice and kind.

“I think you should go.” Ruki sighs, leading the way to the front door. When she hears Jen follow after her without a single word of protest, she squeezes her eyes shut and draws in a shuddering breath. Her hands shake as she reaches for the doorknob, but maybe that’s just a result of her vision being clouded by tears. She blinks them away, opens the door and turns to Jen, who stands so close it’s impossible to fathom that he won’t ever get this near to her again.

“Good night,” She says as he crosses the threshold and when he says _good bye_ in return, it hurts more than such simple words have any right to. The door closes behind her almost without her realizing, and Ruki fumbles with the lock for a while, tracing the shape of the doorknob with one finger until her legs give out. With her back against the door and her legs pulled close to her chest, Ruki stares blankly ahead.

Renamon steps out of the shadows and into her sight. They stare at each other in silence until Ruki blinks. “I panicked,” She admits to her partner.

“That much is clear to see.” The fox crosses the room as her Tamer forcefully swipes tears away. She sinks down to the ground next to Ruki and offers no placating words, no condolences or assurances, simply a shoulder for Ruki to cry on when she finally gives in to her tears a few minutes later.

 .

 .

 .

 .

 .

The next day, Ruki spends her time rushing from one class to another and finds herself immensely glad that Tuesday is the busiest day of her week. It’s late at night when she finally has a minute to herself, and loneliness seeps into her being as she works on an assignment. Frustrated by her wandering mind and the thought that someone should be sitting next to her, offering their opinion on her homework, Ruki throws down her pen with a huff.

“Why did I even take psychology?” She mutters even though the subject is clearly not to blame. The short answer would be that Ruki’s fascinated by how easy it can be to unravel a person, so psychology had seemed like the perfect box to tick off when the time came to choose her subjects. The long answer, however, would be: Jen. He’s always had such a way with people and words, an ease that she struggles to fake. No matter how hard she tries, Ruki always feels out of sync with the world. Her best friend is a digital fox and that should really be a huge, neon sign advertising the fact she doesn’t do so well around people. But Jen does, and she’s always been in awe and slightly envious by how easily he fits in, how casually he can figure out a person and use that to his advantage. Never in a bad way, not to manipulate anyone or anything, but to help people when they don’t know they need help. Jen was the one to open her eyes to a whole hidden language, a secret way of fitting in. The only reason she even considered psychology in the first place was because of him, and he’d been the one to encourage her to go for it.

“Oh, right,” Ruki sighs heavily when she’s reminded of the fact that she’s only doing this because of Jen. She pushes away her books and abandons her desk, switching off the lights in her bedroom as she leaves for the kitchen. It’s probably way past dinner time, so hopefully Renamon will be off doing something else. The last thing she wants right now is for the fox to ask her if she’s okay.

She’s perfectly fine, as long as she ignores the fact that today is the first time in years that she hasn’t had any contact with Jen at all and Ruki’s saved up so many little anecdotes about her day and the kids in her class and her weird professors, she’s drafted countless text messages in her mind to tell Jen about her day and ask him about his. During a five-minute break between classes, she’d gotten as far as dialing his number, only to stop herself from tapping the call button at the very last minute.

The thing is… Ruki was so concerned about avoiding the big things – living together, going out on dates, planning a future – that she didn’t realize the both of them had somehow built a life out of little things like short phone calls and sitting next to each other while they do their homework, arguing over what to have for dinner and falling asleep together.

That night she sleeps on her side of the bed and fills the other half with unfolded laundry and stacks of reference books, if only to spare herself the disappointment of rolling over in the morning to find cold sheets and unused pillows.

 .

 .

 .

 .

 .

On Thursday, Renamon literally does a double-take when she passes by the living room on her way to the kitchen and finds Ruki curled up in the armchair with a book in hand.

“You’re going to be late for class,” The fox reminds her, cautiously approaching the armchair. She’s never had to be so careful around Ruki but it’s only a matter of time before her Tamer finally gives in and mourns her loss. The ten minutes she spent crying into Renamon’s fur while she cursed every single tear and tried to make excuses for her breakdown the night Jen left doesn’t count as a proper reaction to the end of seven years together.

“Nope,” Ruki says, putting down her book. “I’m not. We’ve got a sub this month while the professor’s gone for a conference and he’s crap, so I’m skipping.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” She doesn’t usually get involved in Ruki’s school life but Renamon has noticed how busy her partner’s kept herself so far, and two hours of free time doesn’t seem like a good idea.

“I’ll be fine,” The redhead assures her partner. “I’m just going to finish this book, then Jen and I are going to-”

Renamon places a hand on top of Ruki’s in a gesture meant to comfort her Tamer when she comes to an abrupt stop and realizes that she and Jen aren’t going to anything, not anymore. It’s then that Ruki realizes for the first time that they’re not going to spend Thursday evenings in the park while everyone else is in class, or Friday nights at the movies, or Sunday mornings at that brunch place they’ve been going to since freshman year.

“I was about to go for a walk,” Renamon says. She’d been on her way to get a glass of water before she returned to her room to finish a fascinating encyclopedia, actually, but plans change. “Why don’t you spend the evening with me?”

Ruki isn’t fooled, but she smiles gratefully and nods. “Sure,” She agrees, getting to her feet. “Just let me get a hat and some water.”

She doesn’t know how to thank Renamon without admitting that she’s completely lost on her own and her partner’s offer is the only thing keeping her from breaking down over the empty days that stretch ahead, but the fox returns her smile and nods, just once, when Ruki looks her in the eye and tries to convey what her pride won’t let her say out loud.

They head out to the park with two bottles of water and a book in Ruki’s bag, and Renamon is kind enough to pretend that she’s bringing the book along to finish it, not as a shield to hide behind in case she runs into any familiar faces.

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Renamon gets home late in the evening on Saturday, after a meeting with the others to discuss a potential trip to the Digital World now that she’s fully in control of her teleportation abilities. The apartment is suspiciously quiet – Ruki usually plays music from sun-up to sun-down on Saturdays to keep herself going while she completes any necessary chores – and for a moment, Renamon dreads the thought of finding Ruki curled up in a ball somewhere, finally crying her eyes out. It’s nothing she wouldn’t have seen coming, but the idea of Ruki breaking down all alone is a painful one.

Thankfully, the kitchen lights are on. She walks into the kitchen, and is relieved to find Ruki sorting out containers of take-out food from the Chinese place around the corner.

“I got you noodles,” Ruki informs her, having picked up on the familiar sound of furry feet sliding across tiled floors. “And those fried tofu things you like.”

“Thank you,” Renamon says and offers to get them plates and cutlery. When she gets to the food however, the fox counts nine boxes. The two of them have pretty healthy appetites, but Renamon knows this wasn’t meant to be a feast for two. A clear plastic container filled with some sort of soup stands out in a circle of white boxes. “You don’t drink that,” She turns to Ruki, who hasn’t moved an inch since Renamon walked in. “And neither do I.”

It’s then that she realizes Ruki isn’t actually helping herself to anything; her Tamer is staring blankly at the food, regarding the container of pungent Chinese herbal soup with something akin to disbelief in her eyes.

The soup is almost exactly like the kind Jen’s grandmother makes whenever she’s visiting from Hong Kong, and a homesick Jen had been very happy to find this on the menu when they’d decided to give the restaurant a go back in their first semester. Even Terriermon won’t touch the chicken feet soup, and there’s only one person Ruki would order this for.

Renamon feels her heart, or whatever the Digimon equivalent is, twist in pain for Ruki. The redhead is still staring at the soup she’ll probably have to throw out at the end of the night, when no one shows up to drink it.

The silence stretches on and Renamon grows concerned enough that she considers simply throwing the soup out right now, if only to remove it from Ruki’s sight. But just then, her Tamer draws in a shaky breath and turns to her, too-bright eyes swimming with tears.

“I can’t remember how to be without him,” Ruki whispers and Renamon regrets that she can’t tell her Tamer someday she’ll remember, regrets that she can’t lie and tell Ruki everything will be okay.

 .

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When the doorbell rings at midnight on Sunday, Ruki’s déjà -vu is accompanied by a wave of dread that only intensifies when she opens the door to find Jen on the other side.

“You brought me flowers.” She states flatly when he holds up a bouquet of dark purple orchids. The flowers are about as out of place as Jen looks, and Ruki has no idea how to react to the fact that the man she’s been with for seven years has just shown up with flowers in hand a week after she rejected him and ended their affair.

“I didn’t know how else to apologize.” Jen tells her, dropping his eyes to the ground as soon as they meet hers. Ruki has no idea what he thinks he has to apologize for, and the entire thing is so absurd she still hasn’t figured out how to react. And then there’s the fact that this is the kind of thing that only happens in movies; a guy doesn’t come back one week after you unceremoniously kick him out and offer you flowers and an apology, not in real life. Not in her life.

“Chocolate would’ve been a better bet,” She says for lack of a smarter retort, and immediately regrets it when Jen pulls out a bag of M&Ms from his jacket pocket.

“Yeah, I thought you might say that.”

Ruki finds herself torn between crying or laughing at the gesture and the absurdity of this entire thing, so she does what she figures you’re supposed to do when someone brings you flowers and chocolates: she holds the door open and motions for him to come in with a tilt of her head. Jen seems painfully awkward just standing there with orchids in one hand and M&Ms in the other, and his smile is the tiniest bit forced when he greets Renamon.

“Can you give us a moment, please?” Ruki asks her partner, who’d been woken up by the doorbell and had come out to protect Ruki. Renamon nods and bids them a good evening, disappearing into her room. They watch her walk off until the door closes behind her, and then Ruki clears her throat a bit too loudly and asks Jen to take a seat.

He sits on the sofa and Ruki perches on the side of the armchair, figuring she’ll be less likely to sit too close to him as long as she stays away from the sofa. “You brought me flowers.” Ruki says again just to fill the uncomfortable silence.

“And chocolates,” Jen reminds her, waving the bright yellow bag.

Ruki nods. “And chocolates.”

She crosses her arms and averts her eyes to a nearby wall, wondering what she’s even supposed to do with the orchids as Jen carefully sets them down on the coffee table.

Jen sighs, drawing her attention. “Ruki, I…” He begins once her eyes turn to him. “I’m sorry. I was drunk, maybe more than I realized, and it was stupid of me.”

“So you didn’t mean it?” She questions, because that’s the only possibility running through her mind. It’s almost disappointing.

“What?” Jen’s eyes widen. “No! I – Ruki, that’s not what I’m saying.” He speaks carefully, looking her in the eye to get his message across. “I meant it. I’m in love with you. I have been for… I don’t even know how long.”

“Then why are you here?” Ruki asks impatiently. She doesn’t see any reason for Jen to be here if he’s just going to deliver part two of his speech, unless he’s in the mood to re-open barely closed wounds.

“Because I was drunk and I barely made any sense, and that’s not how I ever pictured telling you.” Jen draws a hand across his face, briefly pinching the bridge of his nose. “I messed up.” He sighs.

“Jen,” She says sharply. “That’s not why… why things ended the way they did. I didn’t react that way because you were drunk, I behaved that way because you’re wrong.” Ruki tries to word it carefully, to speak gently. “And if you think this is going to change anything…”

“I do,” Jen says. “It will change things, because I’m _not_ wrong and I’m going to make you see that.” He vows. This is the conviction, the faith, the spark she could’ve used that Monday night, this is how he should have pushed back against her then. But it would probably have ended in an all-out screaming match. Knowing what she does now, bearing the weight of the past week and the chill of the last few nights, Ruki finds herself remaining silent, giving him permission to go on. Jen seems surprised that she’s letting him give this another shot but he quickly launches into his speech before Ruki can change her mind.

“I know you think I’m in love with some twisted daydream version of you and I know I made it sound that way, but I think I see you exactly as you are, Ruki. We’ve been together for seven years, at least give me a bit of credit. I _know_ who you are.” He leans forward and reaches for her hand, and Ruki finds herself allowing it. Jen laces their fingers together and goes on, more confident now. A smile lights up his eyes.

“I love you,” He almost chokes on the words. “Because of how ridiculously stubborn you are. That’s a strong will, and I think it’s a good thing. I love – and hate, in equal measure – that you don’t see yourself as a good person, because I am genuinely sick of people who think they’re superheroes just because they recycle. I love that you’re good and nice and kind, even if you don’t think so, and hear me out here.” Jen adds quickly when Ruki starts to protest.

“Okay, fine, maybe you’re not all of those things to other people. But you can’t deny that you’re always been good and nice and kind _to me_ , Ruki, and I don’t know what it says about me but that’s all I care about. You know that I would’ve stayed even if you told me point-blank that night that you’ll never love me back. Even if you said this is all we could ever have, you know I’m lovesick enough to stay with you forever.”

That’s when tears start blurring her vision, because Jen is a bloody idiot for giving her so much power and he’s saying everything Ruki never knew she wanted to hear. “But you were going to let me go, Ruki,” Jen’s voice drops into a whisper as he moves closer, barely perched on the edge of the sofa. His hands reach up to frame Ruki’s face. “You would have let me go so that I could have all of those things with someone else, but I don’t want those things without you. I want you, and nothing else matters. If things happen, they happen. And even if they don’t, I’ll still have you.”

“You’re a sappy idio-”

“Keep that for later; I’m not done.” Jen says, and he grins when Ruki refrains from telling him exactly how much of an idiot he is for saying all of this stuff.

“I love that we’ve been together for seven years and sometimes you still make me feel sick to my stomach when you smile at me. In the best way possible,” He quickly clarifies. “And I love how some mornings we wake up so tangled together that you can’t tell where you end and I begin, because that’s how I feel about our life together. Hell, I even love that you can never sit still in the evenings and watch something for more than fifteen minutes before you steal the remote and start channel-surfing.” Ruki laughs and cries and pretty much feels like the biggest mess ever just because Jen loves her crazy way of getting his attention when she’s bored by the TV.

“I mean, sure, it might be fun to actually finish a movie someday,” Jen shrugs. “But definitely not as fun as us wrestling for the remote until we fall off the sofa.”

“You realize how crazy all of this sounds, right?” Ruki laughs, her voice scratchy with a multitude of emotions.

“Yeah, but I _do_ have a point here. And my point is that I love everything about you and everything about our relationship, and these are real things, Ruki, not stuff I made up. I love the good and the bad and the crazy and everything in between, even though _crazy_ pretty much covers most of it.” Jen teases.

“That’s your point?”

“Half of it,” Jen says, losing his smile as things turn serious. This is his last chance to convince Ruki that they’re worth a shot, and after the past week, the only thing Jen knows for sure is that he _needs_ Ruki to say yes. “The other half is… well. I love you. And after all that, you can’t tell me this isn’t real, Ruki. Because I’ve never felt this strongly about anyone ever, and if this isn’t love, then that means I’ve never loved anyone.”

“Not even Terriermon?” Ruki asks because _how_ is she supposed to react to that?

“Ruki, please,” His hands slip down to her neck as he searches her eyes. “I need _something_ from you. It’s okay if you don’t say it back, it’s okay if you never say it back, but tell me that you believe me and I’ll stay.”

She moves one hand up to meet Jen’s, and twines their fingers together as she smiles. “Stay,” Ruki says, leaning in to rest her forehead against Jen’s. “I’ll believe anything you say, just stay.” And then, just for the hell of it, she ruins the moment. “I’ve got leftover Chinese in my fridge if you stay.”

Jen laughs, but he plays along because this is the best he’ll get from Ruki and he’s made his peace with that, for now. “We can call it our first date.”

“Deal,” Ruki smiles against his lips.

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That night, after they’ve swept clean clothes and school books to the ground and cleared off Jen’s half of the bed for him to reclaim it, Ruki feels herself drifting off to sleep after a week of tossing and turning. Jen’s eyelids grow heavy as well, and he knows he’ll sleep well tonight with Ruki safely in his arms.

Forcing himself to stay awake for a few seconds more, Jen leans over and whispers _I love you_ into a sleeping Ruki’s ear because he’s waited _years_ to say it and now he can’t stop.

Just as he settles his head on the pillow though, Jen’s surprised to find Ruki stirring. She rolls over and ends up on her stomach, her face turned towards him even though her eyes remain close. “If you ever tell anyone this,” Ruki mumbles, her words slurred. “I’ll bribe Terriermon and make him tell me about every embarrassing thing you’ve ever done.”

Jen’s eyes fly open as he wonders just where Ruki’s going with this, and he laughs quietly because God, he loves this crazy woman even when she threatens him while half-asleep.

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” Ruki sighs. He observes her carefully for any signs of consciousness but Ruki could be talking in her sleep for all he knows, because her eyes are still closed. Her next words convince Jen she’s definitely unconscious, but they don’t mean any less to him just because Ruki’s asleep. “But I’ve gone and fallen in love with you, idiot.”

His heart seems to seize almost painfully in his chest for a few missed beats until it starts pounding painfully fast, and he nearly chokes on thin air when Ruki follows up her earth-shattering confession with a quiet sight and a simple turn so that she’s back to sleeping on her side, her back pressed against Jen’s front. His lips stretch into a goofy grin that’s almost painful and he’s smiling even as he falls asleep.

The next morning, Jen buys an engagement ring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is about as long as it gets, so we’ll get back to shorter and more light-hearted things soon. I just had to include this moment because it’s a fight Jen, Ruki and Renamon allude to in A Surprise, and as you can see, it’s a defining moment in their relationship. 
> 
> Next up: Juri drops by with a house-warming gift for Ruki when she moves in to Jen’s apartment, and finds out her two friends are more than just roommates sharing a place that’s conveniently close to the office. That’ll be the third of seven outtakes I’ve planned, but leave a prompt if you think of any moment you’d like to see in Jen’ and Ruki’s relationship and I’ll see if I can squeeze in some last-minute Christmas writing!


	3. Three

**Three**

**_Two years before the first chapter_ **

* * *

Juri frowns at the sight of a door left wide open, ushering in any and all who might decide to drop by and pay Ruki a visit. Sure, it’s the middle of the day and this area is notoriously safe but still. Maybe living with a roommate has made Ruki loosen up about things like locking her door and keeping out potentially dangerous strangers. Her roommate _is_ trained in martial arts, so he’d probably be able to handle any mid-day invaders.

“Ruki?” She calls out, hesitantly stepping into the apartment. Her fingers tighten around the handle of the fruit basket she’s brought along as a house-warming gift. A crash somewhere within the apartment startles Juri, but the laugh that follows immediately after sets her at ease as she follows Ruki’s familiar voice into the kitchen.

By the time she gets there, Juri’s loosened her death grip on the basket. What she sees next is enough to shock her into letting go of the thing entirely. Ruki is perched on the edge of a marble countertop, but her face is entirely hidden from Juri’s sight by a head of blue hair as Jen leans in to kiss her. When the basket falls to the ground, the both of them jump and Ruki hurries to remove her hands from Jen’s hair and unwind her legs from where she’d wrapped them around his middle, while Jen pulls his hands away from her waist and steps out of her reach. Juri almost feels bad for interrupting what had clearly been a pretty intense make-out in their new kitchen.

Jen runs a hand through his hair, trying to restore some semblance of order. “Juri,” He smiles nervously. “We weren’t expecting you.”

“Ruki told me to come over after two,” Juri reminds them as she bends down to pick up the basket. Ruki hops off the counter and helps her round up some runaway oranges and apples.

“Is it two already?” Ruki asks as both women straighten up.

“It’s half past three, actually,” Juri informs her. “Let me guess,” She adds with a teasing smile, finally past the shock of walking in on her friends. “You two lost track of time?”

“Yeah,” Jen admits, though he casts his eyes around for an excuse. “We were busy, um, arranging plates. Ruki’s grandmother sent over a nice set of china.” There is indeed a box of fine china somewhere in the kitchen, but even Juri isn’t fooled by the weak lie.

“Right,” She nods with an exaggerated wink. “You were distracted by plates.”

Either she’s seeing things or her friends, the famed master and mistress of composure, are blushing. Juri purposefully strides to the counter and places the fruit basket down on the edge where Ruki had been perched. “I think I’ll leave you guys with those plates, then.” Juri says. When she turns around and begins to near the kitchen door, Ruki turns to Jen, her eyes wide with disbelief. _Is that it?_ She mouths, and Jen shrugs.

“Oh, and by the way,” Juri turns around at the door. “I’ll see you for lunch tomorrow, Ruki. I suggest you spare two hours or so for that.”

Ruki groans as the front door swings shut behind Juri, and Jen walks out of the kitchen to make sure it’s locked this time.

“What the hell am I going to say?” Ruki wonders, trailing after Jen.

“You could tell her it was a one-time, heat of the moment kind of thing,” Jen suggests, securing the locks.

“Because arranging plates is such a turn-on it’ll cause friends to spontaneously start making-out,” She mutters.

Jen laughs and draws her closer. He wraps his arms around Ruki’s waist and smiles at the sight of her things amongst his, all of it set to a backdrop of this familiar apartment he grew up in as a toddler - their apartment, now. “Well, they were some pretty attractive plates, I must say.” He jokes, earning himself a punch to his arm.

“You haven’t even seen them,” Ruki mutters, but she laughs at his poor attempt at humor anyway.

“Ouch, Ruki,” Jen winces, “Remember what we said about playful punches, not actual ones?”

“I don’t punch _that_ hard,” She rolls her eyes at Jen’s impersonation of a wounded puppy. “Come on, you big baby. I’ll kiss it better.”

Ruki shrieks in surprise when Jen drops the pouting and sweeps her off her feet, leading them to the bedroom he can now calls theirs. Thoughts of their relationship becoming public knowledge and Juri’s pending interrogation are abandoned for the rest of the day, though they do manage to drag themselves into the kitchen and sort out Seiko’s china later that night.

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“This is a nice place,” Ruki says as soon as she’s seated across Juri, staring at the huge floral arrangements. The restaurant looks just like any other to her, really, but at this point she’ll say anything just to put an end of Juri’s staring.

“Culumon likes to hide in the flowers,” Juri tells her and sure enough, the Digimon pops out of an arrangement when Ruki turns around to see for herself. Culumon hovers for a bit and waves at Ruki when he spots her, only to dive into another flower vase with a happy squeal. “Where’s Renamon?”

“I told her she didn’t have to come, so she’s at home. I think Terriermon said something about a new documentary on ancient civilizations.” In truth, Renamon is probably skulking around within hearing range. Ruki had tried very hard to convince her to stay away because she doesn’t need someone to witness the embarrassing conversation Juri is sure to drag her into, but that only made the fox smirk and promise to be somewhere nearby.

Juri takes a sip of water and casually fiddles with the buttons on her sleeve. “So Jen’s place is home now, is it?”

“Oh,” Ruki groans, hiding her face behind the menu. “Here we go.”

It’d be easy enough to tell Juri what Jen suggested, or to say it was a sudden development and there’s nothing much to tell, that it’s a new relationship and they’re both trying to figure things out. But nine years was a good run for a secret relationship, and Ruki figures it might be time to put the lie to rest. Juri is one of her closest friends, so why not start with her? And there is, of course, the fact that Ruki can already see the bright smile on Jen’s face when she tells him that she acknowledged their relationship, that it’s something she’s not ashamed to let people know about.

“Come on,” Juri whines, prying the menu from Ruki’s hands. “You’re supposed to tell me these things! Look, I’ll start off easy: how long have you guys been together?”

Has it been nine years? Do the first few years even count, or did their relationship start the night Jen came back to her? When Ruki thinks back on their time together, it always starts with the day she asked Jen if she could kiss him. And Jen’s always said that they’ve been together since that very first day; she was just too stubborn to see it. “Nine years, I guess,” Ruki shrugs, trying to downplay her answer.

“Nine years?” Juri shrieks. “You kept this from me for _nine years_?”

“I kept this from everyone, so don’t take it personally.” Ruki mumbles uneasily, painfully aware of the stares Juri’s piercing voice has attracted. She snatches the menu from Juri and hides behind it once more.

“Of course you kept it from everyone; all of our friends might as well be a bunch of old-lady gossips. But _me_? Ruki, I’m your best friend! You don’t hide nine years of a relationship from your best friend.” Juri rants. “Wait,” She says before Ruki can get a word in edgewise. “How _did_ you hide nine years of a relationship from us, anyway?”

Finally, a question Ruki can easily answer. “Easy; we don’t suck face in public,” She smirks, taking a jab at Juri’s relationship with Takato. “And Jen’s a better liar than any of you give him credit for.”

“Really?” Juri asks, brushing off Ruki’s teasing. She’s used to that from all of their friends, and at least now she’s got ammunition against Ruki. “Huh, I did not expect that from Jen. But I guess it makes sense. It takes two to pull off such a huge act.”

Ruki shrugs and leaves it at that; if Juri can’t think of anything to say, then she’s certainly not going to draw out this conversation. Besides, it doesn’t take long for Juri to start again.

“Wait, does your family know?” Her eyes are impossibly wide. “I mean, I know they’re open-minded but you’re living together!”

“No!” Ruki tells her, slightly panicked. She decides then that Juri will be the only one in on this secret for now, because she feels sick at the mere idea of letting her family know about this. “And you can never tell them, okay? Not even Shiuchon.” She adds, remembering that the two girls have grown quite close.

“I’m surprised Terriermon hasn’t blabbed to Lopmon yet.” Juri comments, turning her focus upon the menu as a waiter approaches. “Wait, Terriermon and Renamon know, right?”

“Of course they know; they live with us.” Ruki points out, and Juri nods as they both place their orders. Thankfully, Juri has enough sense to wait until the waiter is out of hearing range before going on.

“Okay, so I have to ask,” Her voice is nothing but curious. “How do you guys work out? I mean, you’re both great people, don’t get me wrong. But… how?”

This is the question Ruki has been dreading because the fact is _she doesn’t know_. It’s been nine years and still she doesn’t understand what drew them to each other in the first place. But she decided a long time ago not to question one of the best things to have ever happened to her. All she knows for sure is that questioning things and pulling at strings will only unravel everything, and she’s not willing to risk that. Ruki settles upon what she thinks is a brilliant strategy to stop Juri’s line of questioning.

“Well,” She says with a grin. “The sex is really, really good.”

“Ruki!” The younger girl gasps, the faintest hint of a blush flooding her cheeks. Ruki goes on, confident that she’ll scandalize Juri into silence and then they’ll be able to get on with the rest of lunch with no more questions.

“Normal days, when we fight, when we make up, in the kitchen,” She ticks off a made-up list, throwing in a reference to Juri walking in on them yesterday. “All of it is amazing.”

“Stop,” Juri pleads, her voice muffled by the hands she’s brought up to her face. “Just stop.”

“Well, if you don’t want to know…” Ruki shrugs casually, fighting a triumphant smirk. Their appetizers arrive just as Juri cautiously lowers her hands; a lingering flush lends a pink tint to her complexion.

Ruki stabs at her salad while Juri waits for her soup to cool down. “So,” Juri says, waiting until Ruki is munching on a crouton to speak. “Is he?”

“Is he what?” Ruki asks, popping a cherry tomato into her mouth.

Juri can hardly keep her voice serious. “Is he good in bed?” 

That day goes down in history as the first and only time Juri makes Ruki choke on her food, a reverse of the situation she usually finds herself in when they dine together. Ruki’s eyes widen as she reaches for her glass, patting her neck rather forcefully while she coughs.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” Juri warns her as soon as Ruki’s coughing subsides and she starts glaring at the brunette. “You thought you could scare me into leaving you alone. But nine years is long enough to keep this from me, so you can either put the both of us through a very embarrassing conversation or you can talk about the fact that you and Jen have been together for nearly a decade.”

“Do we have to do this?” Ruki sighs, pushing away her salad.

“Come on, Ruki. This will be good for you too. I mean, do you even have anyone to go to when you guys fight?” Juri wonders out loud. She relies so heavily on her friends’ support whenever she and Takato get into a fight, so it’s unfathomable that Ruki would not have the same support system.

“Renamon gives A+ relationship advice, if you’re wondering,” Ruki says. “And sometimes Terriermon plays the middle man, so he runs back and forth between us and tries to figure things out. But we don’t actually fight that much,” She realizes out loud. They have disagreements, sure, but those usually end with one of them laughing at how ridiculous the whole thing is, and the other walking off to hide the fact that their shoulders are shaking with laughter as well. And of course their relationship is troubled; Ruki knows there are lots of things Jen is very careful not to bring up around her. _If things happen, they happen._ It seems he was serious about that, but Ruki wonders if someday he’ll resent her when years have passed and it’s too late for anything to happen.

“Are you okay?” Juri asks when she notices the faraway look in Ruki’s eyes. She brushes the thought off and shoots Juri a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine. But I really don’t know how we work, Juri.” She shrugs, almost apologetically. It would have been nice to tell Juri how they’ve managed to keep going all these years, mainly because she knows the younger girl is looking for advice. Takato didn’t gather up the courage to ask Juri out until they were seventeen, but by the time they were leaving for college they’d broken up at least a handful of times. And things aren’t as volatile as they used to be, but Ruki knows they’ve split up once or twice in the years since. “We almost broke up once,” She offers, thinking it might comfort Juri to know that her relationship isn’t perfect either.

“What happened?” Juri’s eyes are wide with concern.

Ruki laughs at the thought of it now, and how ridiculous this will sound to Juri. “He told me he loves me.”

“That’s usually how you fix things.” Juri nods. “But what were you fighting over?”

“No,” Ruki shakes her head, still laughing. “That’s why we almost broke up.” Juri stares at her as if she’s only now figuring out how messed up her friend is, and Ruki feels the need to explain herself. “I freaked out. Before that, we had an agreement. We were supposed to be casual, just something convenient. And we were, for seven years. But then he came to my apartment one night – and this is all Takato’s fault, he got Jen drunk – and he starts saying all of these things, about wanting to give us a shot and trying to be happy like normal people. And I panicked because the idea of normal, of settling down together and getting married, all of that stuff – yeah,” Ruki cuts herself off; this is the part she can’t laugh at, because they still haven’t worked things out. “I panicked.”

Juri seems fixated upon the one detail Ruki doesn’t want to discuss. “He wants to marry you?” She asks, her voice lowered in awe. Of course that’s the part Juri would want to talk about; it must all seem impossibly romantic to her. Ruki knows Takato has never brought up marriage, even though Juri seems to think it would be the solution to their problems. Marriage would force Takato to grow up, she claims. Ruki disagrees, but she has a rule about staying away from her friends’ arguments. A piece of paper wouldn’t force Takato to magically grow up overnight. And it’s not like he’s not committed to Juri; he just has a pretty vague idea about what it means to spend the rest of their lives together, and Ruki can understand why he wouldn’t want to take a step as big as marriage when they can barely stay together for more than six months at a time.

“Yeah,” She says simply, choosing not to redirect the conversation to Juri’s relationship even though this would be an easy segue. “We don’t talk about it anymore, but everyone knows Jen wants the whole white picket fence thing. He’s that kind of guy.”

“And you’re not that kind of girl,” Juri completes the unspoken half of Ruki’s sentence, her eyes swimming with empathy.

“He thinks I could be though, someday.” Ruki sighs, and smiles at a memory. “Once he told me that I’ll have to give in someday, if only to make sure that we’ll be buried next to each other. He thinks maybe we’ll get married when we’re eighty.”

“What do you think?” Juri asks gently, though she smiles as well at the absurdity of Jen’s words.

Ruki closes her eyes for a short while. “I don’t know what to think,” She admits, revealing for the first time that she might be swayed by Jen. It’s good to finally tell someone, because she’s been trying to hide this from him for months. Who knows how Jen will react to the fact that he’s slowly wearing her resistance down? “We’re so different and up until recently, I thought that means we want completely different things. But now… I don’t know,” Frustration colors her voice. “I just don’t know. I mean, I still don’t know how we’ve even managed to stay together for so long.”

Juri reaches across the table to take Ruki’s hand, and squeezes in a gesture of comfort and support. “Hey,” She says softly, drawing Ruki’s attention. “The important thing isn’t how you work, right? The important thing is that you work.”

“I guess,” Ruki agrees after a moment’s hesitation, and returns Juri’s smile with a slight curve of her lips.

“And you’re happy?” Juri asks, and she decides it’ll be her last question. After walking in on a scene straight out of a movie yesterday, she’d assumed her friends’ relationship is a bright, happy spot in Ruki’s life. She thought that asking Ruki out to lunch and teasing her would end in nothing but laughter, but now she’s dragged up things that Ruki would obviously prefer to keep in the back of her mind.

Ruki’s smile widens into something resembling a grin. “Disgustingly happy,” She confesses with a laugh. “Sometimes I just wonder how things turned out this way for me.”

“As long as things stay this way,” Juri says, raising her glass. “Let’s toast to never asking how or why again.”

In the years to come, Juri has no idea how many times Ruki thinks back on that day during her darkest moments. A year later, when she decides to keep the baby and it makes her happier than she ever thought a child would, Ruki leaves all of her questions in the past and chooses to let herself be happy with a life she never thought she’d live.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s my way of bridging the gap between this outtake and the next, because Outtake #4 takes place mid-story. It’ll be regrettably Jen-and-Ruki-less, but we’ll get to check in with the rest of the gang and see how they react to Juri’s startling announcement that Jen and Ruki are expecting a baby together. 
> 
> Get ready for two outtakes tomorrow, in honor of Christmas Eve!


	4. Four

**Four**

**_The evening of the fifth chapter_ **

* * *

“I know, I’m late,” Juri says as soon as she joins the others, taking a seat next to Takato. It’s awkward because they’re currently separated, but still better than sitting next to Hirokazu or Kenta. She trades small, shy smiles with Takato while the other two groan and mutter _not this again_.

“You’re always late,” Hirokazu complains loudly. “That’s why we’ve learned to go ahead and order without waiting for you.”

“Here,” Kenta says, handing Juri the menu. The boys carry on a conversation about their current project while Juri contemplates her choices and places her order. As soon as the waitress leaves though, three pairs of eyes turn to her.

“So,” Hirokazu speaks up, ever the more impatient one of the trio. “You said you had something big to tell us.”

“Oh, yeah,” Juri mumbles. They’re seated in a tiny booth, and it’s a tight fit for two grown people. Takato is uncomfortably close when he turns to look at her. “It’s about Jen and Ruki.” She announces clearly, trying to figure out how she’s going to say this.

“What about those two?” Kenta asks, pushing up his glasses.

“Yeah, what about them? They never join us for these things, don’t you think?” Hirokazu hijacks her conversation, going off on a rant. “I mean, we barely even see them anymore. Do you think they don’t want to hang out anymore now that they’re important secret government agents?”

“One, they’re not secret government agents,” Juri glares, speaking up for her friends. “Two, maybe they don’t want to hang out because you always behave like an immature boy around them.”

“Ouch,” Kenta grins, turning to Hirokazu. “I’m going to agree with Juri.”

“Like you’re any better,” Hirokazu sneers.

“Guys,” Takato speaks up before these two spend the rest of dinner bickering. “I think Juri had something important to tell us, remember?”

“Oh,” Hirokazu says, pressing his thumb against Kenta’s glasses to smudge them.

“Right,” Kenta mumbles, trying to rip off the hat Hirokazu wears to hide his bad haircut. He glares at Hirokazu and pulls off his glasses to wipe them clean while the other boy adjusts his hat, but they settle down after that.

Juri clears her throat when all six eyes turn upon her once more. “So, it’s about Jen and Ruki.”

“You’ve said that already,” Takato reminds her quietly.

“Oh, I did,” Juri realizes. “Anyway, um, Ruki’s pregnant.”

Hirokazu turns to Kenta and spits out a mouthful of water, most of it landing on Kenta’s recently-cleaned glasses. The green-haired boy is too shocked by Juri’s announcement to muster up a proper reaction.

“What?”

Beside her, Takato remains silent. Juri suspects that he might be in shock, and decides to let him work through this recent development while she fields questions from their friends.

“Ruki’s having a baby? Dude,” Hirokazu turns to Kenta, who’s once again wiping his glasses. “Can you believe that? Man, I feel bad for the kid already.”

“Hey!” Juri protests, feeling offended on behalf of her best friend. “Ruki is going to be an amazing mother, you ass.” She’s usually quite mild with her words but after her conversation with an uncertain and worried Ruki earlier today, the last thing Juri wants is for Hirokazu to share these thoughts with Ruki. If Juri’s forceful enough, maybe Hirokazu will learn to shut his mouth. “I think she’ll be a better parent than anyone else in our group. She’s the most mature.”

“Other than Jen,” Kenta pipes up, providing an opening for Juri to drop her second bomb. Unfortunately, Hirokazu cuts in.

“Yeah, right,” He snorts. “I’m telling you, that kid’s only chance at a happy childhood will be his father. Who’s the father, anyway? I mean, everyone knows that Ruki’s gorgeous but who actually had the guts to approach the Ice Queen?”

“See, that’s probably why Ruki doesn’t want to hang out with you.” Kenta quips.

“Whatever. Now that she’s going to have one of those crying, messy tiny humans attached to her, I don’t want to hang out with her either.” Hirokazu mutters. “But seriously – who’s the father? I bet he’s not even in the picture. Five bucks says Ruki’s like a black widow. If you don’t run fast enough, you won’t survive an encounter with her. Or your pride won’t, at least.”

“You’re comparing our friend to a deadly spider.” Juri’s glare is scary enough to make Hirokazu look away and shut up.

“Guys, Juri said she had news about _Jen_ and Ruki.” Takato speaks for the first time since Juri’s announcement, and she’s surprised that he’s the only one to have caught that.

“Oh, yeah,” Kenta nods. “I mean, I still have questions about Ruki but what’s up with Jen? Tell us about him first.”

Juri can barely believe how dense her friends are. “He’s the father.” She says bluntly, because who knows how long it’ll take for them to figure things out otherwise?

“Wait, what?” Hirokazu’s voice is so high, it’s nearly a shriek.

“That’s it, that’s the news. I told you guys it’s about Jen _and_ Ruki.”

“Wait, what?” Hirokazu echoes dumbly, earning an elbow to his side. “Ouch!” He glares at Kenta, who’s busy staring at Juri with wide eyes.

“So is Jen sticking around?” The boy asks as their food arrives but by the time the four of them are left to their own devices after repeatedly assuring the server that they don’t need anything else, Hirokazu has taken control of the conversation once more.

“Like, are they going to do this as friends-slash-co-parents? ‘Cause I’ve read about a lot of friends doing that, but usually they’re older and they do it because they don’t have anyone else to have kids with.”

Juri’s features twist into a mask of confusion as she tries to figure out what Hirokazu’s going on about. “Or like, was it a one-time thing and now they’re completely surprised and both of them are just trying to figure things out?” The boy goes on.

“Is Jen even going to stick around?” Kenta adds.

“What are you two even-” Juri is momentarily speechless. “How are you even coming up with all of this?”

“Huh?” They ask in unison.

“All of this!” Juri gestures wildly. “You’re thinking up every scenario except the most obvious one.”

Kenta furrows his brows. “And what’s that?”

“They got pregnant the way most people do,” Juri sighs, too tired to even get frustrated by how obtuse her friends are being. “They’re a couple, and it was a nice surprise.”

“Wait,” Hirokazu says after a moment. “How is that the most obvious scenario?”

“I give up!” Juri cries, turning to Takato. “Are you the only one here who understands what I’m saying?”

“Well, Jen had a huge crush on Ruki when we were fourteen,” Takato shrugs. “One day, he stopped talking about it. I thought that maybe she’d turned him down and it was too painful for him to think about it, so I never asked why he just stopped talking about her. But now I’m guessing that’s when they got together and they decided not to tell anyone.”

“Finally,” Juri says with a huff. “Someone’s making sense.”

“Dude,” Hirokazu’s eyes are wide as he turns to Takato. “They’ve been together since we were _fourteen_?”

“How would I know?” Takato asks with a frown. The boys turn to Juri for answers.

“That sounds about right,” Juri tells them. “Ruki says they’ve been together for ten years, and we’re twenty-four this year. So I think it started when we were fourteen or fifteen, sometime then.”

“Wow,” Kenta comments as Hirokazu lets out an impressed whistle.

“That is a _long_ time to be with the same person,” He says in awe, but his brows knit together. “How did they even manage that?”

“You know,” Juri recalls a conversation she had with Ruki two years ago. “I asked Ruki that exact question once, and she told me she has absolutely no idea.”

“There must be some sort of secret,” Kenta points out. “I mean, if it’s been ten years and they’re still going strong… there’s got to be a secret to that.”

“I think all of us at this table could use that secret,” Takato mumbles under his breath, not expecting Juri to hear him. She turns to him with a sad smile and nods. A hushed silence falls over the table then, as everyone gets lost within memories of failed relationships and heartaches.

“Guys,” Hirokazu speaks up just as everyone finally starts eating. Juri pauses and a forkful of pasta hovers mid-air, halfway to her mouth. Kenta stops chewing and Takato puts down his knife. “They’re living together.”

“Buddy,” Kenta turns to Hirokazu with no small amount of concern in his eyes. “Jen and Ruki have been living together for two years now. Are you okay?”

“No – I mean, yeah, I’m fine,” Hirokazu says. “But they’re _living together_.”

“Yeah, we know,” Takato says slowly as all three of them stare at Hirokazu.

“No, you don’t understand,” He rambles on. “Like, we thought they were living together with separate rooms. But they’re living _together_. Like a married couple or something. Come on, they definitely sleep in the same bed.”

“Are you seriously thinking about that?” Juri asks, setting her fork down.

“Come on,” Hirokazu balks at Juri’s blank stare, turning to Kenta for back-up. “You’re thinking about it too, right? Like, it’s been ten years but they just moved in together last year. After ten years, do you still… you know? I mean,” Juri rolls her eyes as Hirokazu goes on and on, and even the other two seem to be uncomfortable. “Obviously there’s enough going on for Ruki to get pregnant but dude, ten years. Do you even want to after that long?”

“Oh,” He crosses his arms when no one speaks up. “Come on, I can’t be the only one wondering.”

“But you’re the only one to actually wonder out loud,” Kenta points out.

“Look,” Juri speaks up before Hirokazu can go on. “It’s not my place to tell you this, but the last thing we want is for you to ask Ruki these questions and land in the hospital.”

“Exactly,” Hirokazu nods eagerly. “Last thing we want. So you’re helping everyone by just telling us. You’re sparing Ruki the trouble of beating me up.” Of course everyone’s amused that Hirokazu doesn’t even try to deny the fact that Ruki would definitely emerge as the clear winner, but no one contests it either. Whether you’re a friend or an enemy, everyone knows better than to cross Ruki.

“Okay,” Juri sighs reluctantly. “Look, Ruki isn’t the kind to really say anything, alright? But sometimes she makes a comment here or there, and also I’ve walked in on them a few times. I’d say ten years hasn’t really changed anything for them.” She can still see Ruki’s troubled eyes, still hear the hitch in her voice when Juri prompted her into opening up about her relationship with Jen and the problems they face. Of course she remembers all of that but- “Theirs is the closest thing to a perfect relationship I’ve ever seen.”

Takato sighs wistfully, and Hirokazu looks down at his food. “If that’s what being a grown-up means – having a proper, stable relationship – then sign me up.” He says quietly, and the others express their agreement as everyone focuses on their food.

“Wait,” Kenta speaks up suddenly, his mouth full of chicken. He freezes when everyone stares at him, and makes quick work of chewing his food. “So is Jen sticking around for the baby or not?”

“Oh, hell,” Juri groans in frustration, suddenly glad that Ruki chose not to deal with this personally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this one’s pretty short. Just a wee snippet of what these guys and Juri were up to during the events of the story. Luckily, today’s Christmas Eve and that means two outtakes – an extra one to make up for how brief this one is. I’m not sure that one will be much longer but I guess two of them will count as one normal-length chapter, at least.
> 
> I’ll be putting the fifth outtake up later this evening, so I’ll see you guys then. Until tonight, I wish everyone a merry Eve. If you’re hosting a dinner party – good luck, comrade. I hope yours goes smoothly and I hope mine goes… somewhat smoothly.


	5. Five

**Five**

**_The weekend before the tenth chapter_ **

* * *

“Matsuda Takato, reporting for Day Two!”

“Come on in, you idiot.” Ruki says, rolling her eyes. It’s way too early for Takato’s particular brand of enthusiasm.

“Good morning to you too, Ruki,” He smiles brightly, stepping in. “Juri is running late; she said there’s something she needs to pick up first. Hirokazu and Kenta should be here soon.”

Ruki nods in acknowledgement. “Jen’s already started.” She leads him to the spare room that’s currently in the process of being converted into a nursery. Yesterday, they’d emptied the room of its old furniture, the biggest and heaviest of which had been a queen-sized bed that Jen’s parents had told them to just get rid of along with everything else in the room. Now, Jen, Terriermon and Renamon stand guard over a large box, trying to figure out the instructions for the crib.

“Help!” Terriermon cries in lieu of a greeting. “We don’t even know what language this is in!”

“Just try to follow the pictures,” Ruki supplies helpfully.

“We tried that with the bookshelf.” Jen points out the half-built, haphazard-looking pile of wooden panels. “We’ve decided to come back to that later.”

“Give me that,” She scoffs, reaching for the instructions in Jen’s hand. “I’m sure I can-”

“Oh, no,” He pulls the piece of paper away from her. “You’re seven months pregnant; I’m not letting you anywhere near these things. Besides, you’re on door duty.”

“Don’t make me hit you, Jen.” Ruki crosses her arms and glares at him.

“Don’t make me build a chair to make you rest in, Ruki.” Jen retorts.

The doorbell rings once more. “You couldn’t even if you tried,” She laughs, walking out to get the door. Ruki has a greeting on the tip of her tongue, figuring that it’ll be Hirokazu and Kenta on the other side.

“Do either of you know- wait, what are you doing here?”

“Surprise!” Ryo grins, inviting himself in. “I heard there’s a pretty sweet deal on pizza in exchange for slave labor, so here I am. And I see you’ve already helped yourself to an unhealthy amount of pizza,” He says teasingly, with a pointed look at Ruki’s stomach.

“That’s the baby, you ass,” Ruki rolls her eyes, closing the door behind her visitor. “Come on, I’m sure the guys will be happy to see you… if you can figure out the instructions.”

“Hold up, no one said anything about figuring those infernal things out,” Ryo says as they enter the nursery, drawing everyone’s attention. “You know I’m not the brains of this operation; I’m the boo-“

Ruki interrupts him with a glare. “I swear, if you say B-O-O-T-Y around my kid,” She warns.

“Wait,” Ryo turns to Jen. “Can the kid hear me?”

Looking up from the same sheet of instructions he’s been studying for the last fifteen minutes, Jen shrugs. “Yeah, but I doubt she’ll remember this. Still,” He adds after a quick look at his wife. “I wouldn’t risk it.”

“Alright then,” Ryo holds up his hands in surrender. “I’ll take your advice when it comes to _not_ pissing off pregnant Ruki.”

“See?” Ruki fakes a sickly sweet smile as the doorbell rings for the third time this morning. “You _do_ have a brain. A bit of it, at least.”

Ryo shudders and turns to Jen as soon as he’s sure Ruki is out of hearing range. “You are a brave, brave man.”

 .

 .

 .

 .

 .

“I’m sorry,” Juri pants, leaning heavily against the door frame. She looks completely out of breath and Ruki wonders if she ran all the way here. “I had to go to the other end of town, and it was completely jammed all morning. On a _Sunday_ , would you believe that?”

Ruki ushers her friend in. “Why did you have to go all the way across town?” She asks, her face lined with worry as Juri sits down. Her eyes are drawn to the box at Juri’s feet, wrapped in yellow paper with a white ribbon on top.

“I had to pick this up,” Juri says, pointing out the box. “It was supposed to be ready two days ago and I wanted to give it to you yesterday.”

“Well,” Ruki eyes the box with mild curiosity. “What’s in it?”

“You’ll see,” The younger girl smiles as she gets to her feet. “Where’s everyone else?”

“In the nursery, but they’ll be out soon. I called for pizza ten minutes ago.” Ruki tells Juri, her eyes flitting to the box once more. “You were going to give that to me yesterday, right? So why can’t I open it now?” She sounds almost childishly impatient, and Juri laughs.

“My box can wait,” She assures Ruki and hooks their arms together, leading her to the nursery. “Is there anything left for me to do?”

“You’ll have to ask Jen,” Ruki mutters. “He won’t let me do anything. I think they’ve finished the crib and the changing table, but the rocking chair is giving everyone a headache. And the bookshelf looks fine, but Jen insists it’s not complete.”

“Let me guess,” Juri says. “You’ve got extra parts?”

“Just one,” Jen says from across the room, where he’s circling the bookshelf with a frown while Renamon observes the structure silently. He holds up a small object, and Juri squints to make out the shape of a screw.

“Come on,” Ryo claps Jen’s shoulder. “This thing isn’t going to fall apart because of a single screw. Besides, they give you extras sometimes.”

“But the instructions say we need twelve screws, and the box had twelve.” Takato points out. “So there shouldn’t be any extras.” Ryo groans and turns to the younger boy, drawing one finger across his own neck in a warning motion.

“Oops,” Takato grins sheepishly when Jen goes back to studying the bookshelf, engaging Renamon in a quiet conversation as they both try to figure out where they went wrong.

“I’m so done with this,” Ryo announces. “When’s the food coming?” The doorbell rings just then, and Hirokazu and Kenta drop everything to look at each other while Terriermon pops out from a pile of bubble wrap.

“Food!” They cry in unison, rushing out of the nursery. Ryo, Takato and Renamon trail after them, and even Jen sets down the screw with a defeated sigh.

“Are you ladies coming?” He asks when Ruki and Juri make no move to leave the room.

“In a while,” Ruki assures him, and smiles when Jen kisses her cheek as he passes by.

“Alright,” Jen says hesitantly. “Just don’t try to carry anything, okay?” He says to Ruki.

“Aye, captain,” She rolls her eyes and mock-salutes him. “Now get out there before those idiots get pizza sauce over everything.”

Jen seems mildly horrified by the idea and leaves without another word.

“We should get out there too,” Juri sets the box down on the changing table. “Otherwise there won’t be any left for us.”

Ruki dismisses her concerns with a wave, stepping further into the room. Dozens of shopping bags sit in one corner, and she roots through them for a set of bed sheets. “Jen will keep a box for us. Plus, I’m seven months pregnant. Trust me, none of them will touch my share.”

“Are Hirokazu and Kenta still treating you like their supreme leader?” Juri laughs, watching as Ruki walks over to the crib and starts putting on cream-colored sheets. She walks to the bags and returns with a small pillow, holding it out to Ruki.

“If they were terrified of me before I started growing a tiny human, then I don’t know what to call them now.” Ruki grins, setting the pillow down. “It comes in handy though; at least now they’ll shut up when I tell them to.”

“They always shut up when you tell them to,” Juri says. “Sometimes you just have to raise your voice. And say it a few times.”

“Yeah, well,” Ruki fusses with the blanket a bit, smoothing out folds. “Now I could whisper it and they’d fall silent immediately. If only I could figure out a way to keep them this scared of me after I have the baby.”

Juri leads them out of the room as soon as Ruki is satisfied with her work. “Still no name?”

“Nope,” Ruki shakes her head. “This might sound stupid but I never realized how many names there are.”

“You’ll find one eventually,” Juri assures her. “You could narrow it down to names that start with _R_ , keep that tradition going.”

“So that magazines can gush over my mother and her family’s matching names?” Ruki scoffs.

“Who cares what they say?” The brunette frowns. “If you choose to go with matching names, it’s your choice and your business. Besides, it’ll be cute. Oh,” Juri’s eyes light up. “And if you have another one, you could name them something that starts with _J_! Like Jen and his father.”

“You know,” Ruki muses, pushing aside the thought of another child. “I never realized both of us share matching names with our parents.”

“Well, now you do,” Juri smiles as they near the kitchen. “So that’s something to consider, especially if you have another kid.” She adds, trying to be subtle.

“Okay, stop,” Ruki laughs at her friend’s poorly-concealed prying. “We don’t know yet. And if we decide to have another one, you’ll be the first to know.”

“You mean aside from Renamon, and Terriermon, and maybe half of your family?”

“Yes,” She nods after a moment’s consideration. “You’ll be the first to know, aside from all of those people.”

Juri shrugs. “Fine,” She says as they join everyone else in the kitchen. There are only four chairs in the kitchen, and that’s usually enough for their little family unit. But today Takato and Ryo claim a chair each while Hirokazu and Kenta fight each other for the third, and Jen saves one for Ruki. Terriermon’s plopped himself down on the countertop itself, giving him easy access to the food. Jen gives his seat up to Ruki and joins Renamon in leaning against the counter as Ryo shoves both Hirokazu and Kenta off the chair and tells Juri to take a seat, leaving the two boys to stand as well.

“So, what’s next?” Takato asks once everyone’s settled down and started eating.

“Well, we’ve already finished the crib and the changing table,” Jen ticks off a list. “And I think it’s time to give up on the bookshelf.” He sighs along with Renamon. “So I think next would be the rocking chair, the dresser and the nightstand.”

“Why does a baby need a nightstand?” Hirokazu asks through a mouthful of food. “Like, is she going to need a place to put her glasses and phone at night?” His question is met with bewildered silence, and he swallows audibly. “Okay, no questioning the baby’s furniture selection. I get it.”

“Alright,” Ryo draws out the word, slowly turning away from Hirokazu to address the table. “If that’s all, then I suggest Hirokazu and Kenta take the nightstand. It’s just setting up a frame and sliding two drawers in,” He says to the duo. “I think you guys can manage that.”

“Yeah, that sounds- wait,” Kenta scowls. “Are you implying something?”

“I’m not _implying_ anything,” Ryo retorts. “But I _am_ saying that the two of you thought the bars go on top of the crib, so maybe we should leave the simple things to you.”

“Hey, that’s not our fault!” Hirokazu cries in protest. “We thought that was supposed to keep the baby from climbing out. I mean,” He turns to Ruki and Jen. “Sure, now your baby won’t roll out of bed. But what if she decides to monkey her way out?”

Ruki doesn’t even look up from her food and Jen spares Hirokazu only the briefest of glances before he turns to Ryo. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. So who wants to help me with the rocking chair?”

“I believe I have deciphered the pictorial guide,” Renamon says. “I will assist you in constructing this.”

“Yeah, sure,” Hirokazu mutters. “Just ignore my safety concerns.” Kenta consoles him with a few condescending pats on his shoulder.

“So can we leave the dresser to you two?” Jen asks Ryo and Takato, who nod.

“Wait, what about me?” Terriermon demands.

Jen smirks. “Oh, so now you want to work, huh? I guess spending all morning napping in bubble wrap has given you enough energy.”

“Hey!” The rabbit cries, dropping his slice of pizza in favor of crossing his arms. “I wasn’t napping. I was…” He flounders for an excuse. “I was organizing the bubble wrap and all of the other plastics and boxes you took the furniture out of. Because otherwise you’d have this huge mess, and none of you would be able to walk, and then you’d lose all of the tiny parts in that mess.” Terriermon nods to himself, surprised that he’d been able to come up with something. “So there, you’re welcome.”

“Half of the room is covered in discarded plastic and bubble wrap, and Ruki was the one pushing aside cardboard boxes.” Renamon says flatly in between bites of pizza.

Terriermon turns to the fox with a look of betrayal in his eyes. “Renamon!” He stomps his foot, the force of which sends his ears flying. “How could you do that to me?”

Renamon simply shrugs and picks up another slice of pizza while the others laugh.

“Okay, fine,” Ruki speaks up just as Terriermon is on the verge of throwing a tantrum. “Why don’t you help Juri and I organize the baby’s things? Now that we’ve got the bookshelf and the table, we can start taking stuff out of the shopping bags.”

The rabbit considers her suggestion. “It’s not going to be hard work, right?”

Ruki stifles a laugh as the others snicker. “Nope, not at all,” She tells Terriermon. “Jen wouldn’t let me handle it otherwise.”

“Hey, it’s for your own good,” Jen defends himself. “If I’d let you, you would have tried to carry the entire bedframe out of the room yesterday! On your own,” He adds.

“Whatever,” Ruki says with a huff, turning to Terriermon. “So, what do you say? Are you up to the task of shelving diapers?”

“Well,” Terriermon draws out the word for as long as he can, feeling the weight of everyone’s eyes upon him. “Oh, fine. You wouldn’t be able to manage without me anyway.” He declares, crossing his tiny arms as he holds his head up high. Jen reaches over to snatch his partner off the counter and tickle his sides as Ruki whips out her phone and records the entire thing, still munching on the pizza in her other hand.

Ryo turns to Renamon. “That’s it,” He announces. “You are the only normal person in this family.”

 .

 .

 .

 .

 .

“Okay,” Jen says, carefully lowering himself into the rocking chair as everyone gathers around to watch. “This is the moment of truth.”

He slowly settles his hands on the armrests, and raises his feet off the ground to let the rocking chair bear his full weight. The thing doesn’t make a single creak as it lazily swings back and forth.

“We did it!” He grins, reaching forward to high-five Renamon while the others cheer. The rocking chair had taken longer than the other two pieces of furniture and with this complete, so is the day’s work. Jen stands up and motions for Ruki to try it out, only to be stopped by Hirokazu.

“Maybe Kenta and I should sit in it,” He suggests with a snicker. “You know, to make sure it can hold Ruki’s weight.”

Kenta gulps as Ruki’s eyes narrow into dangerous slits. “I would just like to announce right now that I had nothing to do with that, and Hirokazu is entirely responsible for his own words.”

“Traitor!” Hirokazu cries.

“Unlike you, I don’t have a death wish!” Kenta hisses as they both turn to Ruki, nervously awaiting her reaction. The woman in question has calmly lowered herself into the rocking chair, and doesn’t seem to be interested in doling out punishment of any sort.

“Aren’t you gonna,” Ryo speaks up. “You know, kick them or bang their heads together or something?”

“Why should I waste my effort,” Ruki smirks. “When one look is enough to make them _this close_ to peeing their pants?”

Ryo bursts out laughing, and Tweedles Dee and Dum drop their eyes to the ground as everyone joins in.

“Okay,” Juri says, her voice still colored with laughter. “Alright, if everyone’s done,” The others shoot pointed looks at Hirokazu and Kenta. “It’s time to open this,” She smiles, picking the box up from the table to place it in Ruki’s lap.

“Ooh,” Terriermon clambers up the back of the rocking chair to perch on top of it, putting himself near Ruki’s shoulder. “What’s in there?”

“I suppose you’ll know when Ruki opens it,” Renamon states as Ruki tugs on the ribbon.

“You know I hate opening presents in front of people,” Ruki mumbles, focusing her eyes on the box to avoid everyone’s stares. She slowly undoes the wrapping, taking the paper off as one intact sheet. Terriermon cranes his neck to peek over Ruki’s shoulder as she takes the lid off the box and he smiles when Ruki carefully lifts the nursery mobile up, spotting a familiar figure.

“Hey, that’s me! And Renamon! And Lopmon, and Guilmon, and Culumon, and-”

“Juri,” Ruki turns to her friend as Terriermon continues to name the nine plush toys attached to the mobile’s strings. “This is amazing.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Juri smiles, reaching out for the miniature Leomon. “I thought the baby might like something familiar at night, and this way there’ll always be someone to watch over her.”

“Thank you,” Jen says to their friend as Ruki smiles and reaches out for Juri’s hand. She hands the gift to Jen, who clips it to the crib as everyone crowds around for a closer look, commenting on the likeness of their Digimon.

“Hey, are my legs that chubby?” Terriermon asks, and even Renamon can’t help herself from stepping closer to inspect her lookalike. Hirokazu and Kenta start taking pictures to show their partners.

Terriermon crosses his arms. “Okay, I _know_ my stomach doesn’t stick out like that.”

 .

 .

 .

 .

 .

Later that night, Ruki stares at the mobile while Jen puts away all of the bags and furniture boxes.

“Juri said they would watch over her,” She says when Jen wraps his arms around her, and he can tell how tired Ruki is by the way she immediately leans into him for support.

“I believe her,” Jen says. “Maybe not the plush versions, but you know the Digimon will do anything to help us keep her safe. She’ll be family to them, just as we are.”

Earlier today, Ryo had used the same word when he’d cracked a joke about them to Renamon. _You’re the only normal person in this family_ , he’d said. Ruki has always thought of Renamon as family, and living with Jen and Terriermon has brought all of them so close together that she thinks of them as one family unit now. And this weekend has made her realize that she thinks of the others as family as well, even if Hirokazu and Kenta will forever be just distant, annoying cousins.

“We have a weird idea of what family is,” Ruki laughs.

Jen shrugs. “You can never have enough family,” He says. “Besides, this is the family we chose. We’re all a bit weird, but we know we choose to be here for each other.”

Ruki’s never thought of it like that – she chose this family. In the beginning they were all thrown together to save the world, and it made sense to keep hanging out after that since they were the only ones who could understand each other. And now years have passed, they’ve all grown up and Ruki can’t imagine her life without these crazy people. That’s what family means, she thinks: you can’t imagine life without your family.

Her child will be a part of that soon, if she isn’t already. As loud and crazy and irritating as their families might be – all of them, blood or chosen – the thought of her daughter having so many people to care for her warms Ruki’s heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bribe-motivated free labor always makes for a good outtake, right? And I think most of us can relate to doing anything for pizza. Alright, only two more outtakes left and they’ll both be up by tomorrow! I think I’ll be posting one in the afternoon and one at night, as I did today. Enjoy the rest of your Christmas Eve and have a merry Christmas morning! To those not celebrating, enjoy a day off to sleep in!


	6. Six

**A Gift**

**Six**

_**Four months after the epilogue** _

* * *

When both Jen and Ruki get a phone call at the exact same time - ten-thirty on a Saturday evening - even Takato knows something is wrong. Dinner comes to an abrupt end and once it’s established that Jen and Ruki are in the same room, Reika hangs up and Yamaki asks to be put on speakerphone.

Takato doesn’t really catch much of the conversation. By the time the words _Digital World_ and _short trip_ come up, Jen and Ruki are already leaving the kitchen to get into their uniforms. They take Jen’s phone with them, leaving Takato with Renamon, Terriermon and a mostly-finished dinner. Terriermon helps himself to what little is left of dessert, and all is silent until his hosts return, properly dressed.

“Someone managed to invade the Digital World,” Jen informs the room. “Yamaki wants us to track him down and bring him back to Hypnos before he can cause any damage. It shouldn’t take more than two hours,” He turns to Terriermon and Renamon. “But we _will_ need you guys to come along.”

“But who will take care of Rika?” Terriermon wonders, finishing off the last of his cupcake.

“My mom’s in Europe and my grandmother is on vacation with her friends,” Ruki frowns. “Jen’s entire family is in Hong Kong. And Juri’s out of town.”

“Takato, would you mind?” Jen asks, and Ruki immediately turns to him.

“What?” She demands. “Are you insane?”

“What other choice do we have?” Jen points out as Ruki crosses her arms. Takato decides to fade into the background and leave the couple to it; he’ll just go along with whatever decision they make. “Besides, we tucked her in two hours ago and she’s been sleeping through the night for the last three months. We’ll be back before she even wakes up.”

“Guys,” Takato speaks up as soon as Ruki looks like she might agree. “I’m totally fine with this. Juri and I babysit her cousins all the time.”

“Keywords being _Juri and I_ , and I don’t see her around right now.” Ruki retorts sharply. Takato brushes it off; she’s probably just worried about leaving Rika in the middle of the night. “What if she gets out of the crib?” She asks Jen. “You know she’s been getting better at pulling herself up. And she’s been developing separation anxiety.”

“But she’ll be _sleeping_ ,” Jen reminds his wife. “And she hasn’t woken up in the middle of the night for the last five weeks. Come on, Ruki. You trust Takato, don’t you?”

The boy in question deliberately averts his eyes from the couple, choosing to stare at their marble countertop. “I let him lead us into an unknown world when we were kids,” Ruki points out. “Obviously it isn’t a matter of trusting him.”

“Good,” Jen smiles. “Then it’s decided. And the sooner we go, the sooner we’ll get back to our baby.” He assures Ruki. “You don’t mind, do you, Takato?”

“Of course not,” Takato says. “Hey, you’ve given me a good excuse to hang around, eat all of your cookies and watch TV.”

“Just keep the volume down,” Ruki orders as she thrusts the baby monitor she’d kept by her side throughout dinner into Takato’s hands. “And keep this with you. If she wakes up, make sure you don’t take your eyes off her.”

“Okay, sure,” The boy nods and smiles. “Don’t worry, Ruki. I can handle this.”

“For everyone’s sake, I hope you can,” She mutters. “Look, just don’t take your eyes off my kid, okay? I’m serious. She’s been crawling and all it takes is two seconds without supervision for her to get somewhere she shouldn’t be.”

“I’ll watch her like a hawk,” Takato vows. “Or an eagle; whichever has sharper eyes.”

“Come on,” Ruki says to Renamon. “Let’s go before I change my mind.”

“Thanks,” Jen says with a smile as he takes Ruki’s hand and holds out his arm for Terriermon to wrap an ear around. “We really appreciate this, Takato. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“Everything will be okay, guys,” Takato assures them as Renamon closes her eyes and the four of them brace for the trip. “Good luck!”

They’re gone without so much as a _pop_ , and Takato is left to his own devices in a kitchen full of used dishes. He decides to be a good guest and sticks the baby monitor into his pocket before he clears the table. There’s one last macaroon on the table, and Takato finishes it off as he stacks up empty plates.

It takes him fifteen minutes to clean the kitchen, and the baby monitor remains silent. Still, Takato decides to peek into the nursery for a quick look before he parks himself in front of the TV. Baby Rika sleeps peacefully, though her little face twists into a frown as Takato observes. He waits for the frown to pass and only leaves once Rika puffs out a little sigh of contentment.

Takato sighs when he sinks into the sofa, and starts hunting down something good to watch. He settles on a late-night movie he’s seen maybe two times, and shoots out a text to Juri to let her know what he’s up to. A dozen emojis flood his inbox in reply, accompanied only by the simple words _good luck_. The fact that all one dozen yellow faces are frozen in various expressions of amusement and laughter doesn’t exactly do much to convey Juri’s faith in his baby-sitting skills. The movie returns from a break, and Takato texts back a simple _ha ha_ before he lets himself get sucked into the familiar plot.

It’s nearly half an hour later when the shrill sound of his ringtone pierces the silence, and Takato’s first instinct is to stick the ringing object under a cushion to muffle the sound. He grabs the baby monitor next to him and holds his breath as he waits for a cry.

Thankfully, nothing happens. Ruki really wasn’t kidding when she said the kid’s as heavy a sleeper as her father, and Takato is immensely grateful for it. After a few more seconds of keeping an ear out just in case, he sets the monitor down and trades it for his phone, quickly silencing the thing before he checks through his log. _Two missed calls from Hirokazu_ , the screen tells him. Takato quickly calls him back.

_“Dude, I called you like, twice. What’s up?”_ Hirokazu says as soon as the call goes through. _“Are you done with dinner yet? Kenta and I thought of going for a midnight movie or something.”_

“Jen and Ruki had to leave about an hour ago; Yamaki needed them for a mission.” Takato says, trying to keep his voice down. He eyes the baby monitor warily.

_“So you’re in? And why are you whispering?”_

“No, I’m not in,” He sighs. “I’m taking care of the baby while her parents are out.”

Hirokazu bursts out laughing. _“You’re babysitting?”_

“Yeah,” Takato frowns. Between Hirokazu’s reaction and Juri’s text, he’s starting to feel a bit offended. Doesn’t anyone think he can do this? Well, Jen did. And probably Ruki too, or she would never have left Rika with him. Takato is just about to defend himself when Hirokazu speaks again.

_“Wait,”_ His friend say, abruptly serious. _“Wait, wait, wait. Does that mean no one’s home?”_

“Well, I’m here,” Takato points out. “And Rika, but she’s sleeping.”

_“This is our chance!”_ Hirokazu exclaims, presumably to someone else. Takato’s best guess would be Kenta. _“Dude, we’re on our way.”_

“What?” Takato’s eyes widen in alarm. “No, you can’t just-” But Hirokazu’s already hung up. Just as Takato is about to call him again, his ears pick up on muffled whimpers.

“Oh, no,” He says, rushing into Rika’s room. Sure enough, the baby is awake. She’s whimpering and sniffling as she tries to reach for the wooden bars. Takato remembers what Ruki said about the baby pulling herself up and he quickly crosses the room to pick her up before she tries to swing her way out. Rika’s whimpers turn into excited squeals as she’s picked up but as soon as she realizes she isn’t being held by either of her parents, she starts wailing. Her face turns worryingly red and Takato can feel himself starting to panic. Juri usually deals with the crying ones.

“Hey,” Takato sits down on the floor and bounces the baby. “Hey, Rika, it’s alright. Everything’s going to be okay.” He keeps up a steady stream of reassuring babble, and eventually Rika opens her eyes. They’re still swimming with tears, and she sniffles as she reaches out to grab Takato’s shirt. Her thumb and index finger pinch the collar of his tee-shirt.

“When’d you learn to do that?” He smiles as the baby’s face scrunches up in concentration. “That’s a neat trick, Rika.” Excited by an adult’s approval, the baby tugs a little too hard on his collar. “Okay, but maybe no strangling yet.” Takato slowly pries Rika’s little fingers open and lets her wrap them around his thumb instead.

The most important thing to do now is probably get the baby back to sleep, but there must be a reason why she woke up. Bracing himself, Takato holds her up and takes a cautious sniff. Thankfully, they seem to be alright on that front. She can’t be hungry; hungry babies will cry non-stop until you give them what they want.

“So what’s wrong?” He asks Rika, who giggles happily as she squirms around. “Your daddy said you should sleep through the night.”

Rika’s quite an alert baby, it would seem. As soon as she catches the word _daddy_ , her eyes widen and she takes a look around the nursery. “Ba?” She asks Takato.

“Is that how you say daddy in baby talk?” An amused Takato asks, lowering the baby into his lap to bounce her. If nothing else, he learns that Rika does recognize the word _daddy_.

“Ba!” She demands, craning her neck to look for her father. When he doesn’t show up, Rika takes a deep breath and lets out a piercing wail, struggling in Takato’s lap as she demands her father. Takato regards her with panicked eyes, wondering what the hell he’s supposed to do. Rika has always been a quiet, calm baby whenever he and Juri babysit. It’s a new thing for her to recognize the word _daddy_ and actually seek him out, and it’s only now that Takato understands what Ruki meant when she said the baby was developing separation anxiety.

“Do you want your mama?” He asks hesitantly, waiting for the baby to prove him right. Sure enough, Rika repeats the exact process of asking, then demanding for her mother, only to burst out crying when Ruki doesn’t appear.

“Okay,” Takato says, getting to his feet. “Let’s go find your daddy and mama.” Rika seems placated by the promise, though she sniffles at the mention of her parents. She clings to Takato like a scared, needy monkey as they walk into the living room.

“Look,” He readjusts Rika so that her face isn’t hidden against his shoulder and holds up a framed picture of Jen and Ruki. “That’s daddy and mama.”

“Ba?” Rika sniffles quietly, raising one little hand to reach for the frame. Her thumb presses against the image of her mother. “Ba?” She turns to Takato when nothing happens, looking dangerously close to tears.

“So that’s not going to work,” Takato mutters before he fakes a bright smile for the baby. “Hey, your mama said you can crawl now.” He tells Rika as they walk back to the nursery. For a minute there, he’d almost considered letting her down in the living room. Imagining the fury on Ruki’s face if her daughter were to discover something on the floor is enough to scare him into returning Rika to her baby-proofed nursery.

“Come on,” He smiles encouragingly as he sets Rika down on the carpet. “Do you want to show me how you crawl?” _Crawl_ is apparently a word she hasn’t memorized, so Rika stares blankly at him until Takato sighs. “Crawl, Rika,” He says, getting on his hands and knees to demonstrate. The baby’s eyes light up in recognition and she quickly joins him, wobbling a bit as she struggles to bear the full weight of her body with her arms.

After a few failed starts, most of which end up with Rika unceremoniously plopping down on her stomach while her arms flail at her sides, the baby finally gets the hang of crawling only to be interrupted by the doorbell. Rika freezes and Takato has the sense to pick her up and put her in a sitting position before her arms give out. She claps at this new development and starts shuffling around on her bum.

“Okay,” Takato says, picking her up. “As much fun as that is, your mama said not to take my eyes off you for even a second. Come on,” Luckily, Rika doesn’t protest at being interrupted.

Takato presses one eye to the peephole and nearly jumps back in fright at the extreme close-up of Hirokazu’s nose. “Hey!” His friend calls, voice muffled by the door. “It’s us!”

“Why would you ring the doorbell?” Takato asks as he holds the door open for Hirokazu and Kenta. “What if Rika had been asleep?”

“But she wasn’t,” Hirokazu shrugs, waving at the baby. To everyone’s surprise, Rika waves back. “Hey, neat trick, kiddo. Okay,” He announces, clapping his hands together. “We are going to search every inch of this place.”

“What?” Takato demands. “You can’t do that!”

“He still thinks Ruki and Jen have some secret trick to keep their relationship going,” Kenta sighs. “I’ve tried talking him out of it but-”

“Dude,” Hirokazu scowls at his friend. “They’ve been together for more than ten years and you can barely tell, because they’re about as happy as new couples in their honeymoon phase. You can’t seriously believe there’s no secret trick to that.”

“I don’t think it’s the kind of trick you can find in their apartment,” Kenta muses. “Actually, I really don’t think there’s a trick to it. Maybe some people are just lucky enough to have a great relationship.” He turns to Takato, who nods in agreement.

“That is crap,” Hirokazu tells the both of them, and Takato presses one hand over Rika’s exposed ear. The other is, thankfully, pressed against his shirt. He can only hope that’s enough to prevent _crap_ from being the kid’s first word.

Takato glares at Hirokazu. “Oh, yeah,” He grins sheepishly. “Sorry, kiddo. Don’t say that, it’s a bad word.”

“Ba!” Rika squeals, happy to be a part of the conversation.

“Dude, is she trying to say bad?” Hirokazu asks.

“That’s baby speak, idiot,” Takato snaps. “Now can we please focus on the fact that you want to spy on her parents’ lives?”

“Chill, man. They’ll never know.” And with that, Hirokazu makes his way to the master bedroom. Kenta and Takato share a stunned look before they both scurry down the hallway to follow after their wayward friend.

“Hey, Ryo,” They hear Hirokazu call out as the sound of drawers being pulled open reaches their ears. “If you were Ruki-”

“Or Jen!” Kenta adds, earning himself a glare from Takato. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, or Jen, where would you hide, you know, things you don’t want people finding in your bedroom?”

Hirokazu tosses his phone on the bed and puts Ryo on speakerphone. _“I don’t hide anything,”_ Ryo laughs. _“I embrace who I am, and who I am is a freak.”_

“Ew,” Hirokazu scrunches up his nose. “I did not need to know that. Okay, good for you. But if you were Ruki-”

“Or Jen!” Kenta pipes up. He turns to Takato with a wince. “Sorry!”

“Okay, if you were Ruki or Jen,” Hirokazu amends with a pointed look at Kenta. “Where would you hide stuff?”

_“Wait,”_ Ryo speaks up as Hirokazu pulls open the last drawer of the second nightstand. _“What is going on there?”_

“Ruki and Jen left Takato in charge of the apartment and their kid, so we’re here to figure out their relationship.”

_“Dude, that is messed up.”_ Ryo says disapprovingly. _“I’m coming over.”_

Takato gapes at the phone and joins the conversation. “But you just said it’s messed up!”

_“Oh, hey, Takato. Yeah, it’s like ten different kinds of messed up and rude,”_ The older boy clarifies. _“But I’m not going there for that. Free food, man. Ruki and Jen have all the good stuff because they’re actual adults with stable jobs.”_

“We’re all adults with stable jobs,” Kenta points out.

_“Yeah, but Jen and Ruki are like, real adults. I bet you they even have a proper weekly grocery shopping list.”_

“It’s true,” Takato tells them. “There’s one on the fridge.”

_“See?”_ Ryo says. _“I’ll be right over. Don’t worry, guys. You’re supposed to watch Rika, right? I’m great with kids. Trust me: you’ll be glad I’m there.”_

 .

 .

 .

 .

 .

“Letting you come over was the worst idea,” Takato groans as Ryo helps himself to the contents of the fridge. Hirokazu and Kenta emerge from the pantry with boxes of food. Ryo’s arrival convinced them to give up Hirokazu’s mission and simply have themselves a midnight feast, leaving Takato on his own to deal with a wailing Rika. Her face is beyond red and a shade that tells Takato her mother would absolutely kill him for letting her baby get this upset.

“Oh, come here,” Ryo says, putting down a bottle of wine as he reaches for the baby. Takato shoots him a doubtful look, to which Ryo rolls his eyes and pries the baby out of her caretaker’s hands. He straps Rika into her high chair and smirks triumphantly when the girl stops shrieking. Unfortunately, Ryo’s victory is short-lived and within seconds, Rika is bracing her lungs for another round. With a wild look of panic in his eyes, Ryo starts pulling funny faces. He’s got Hirokazu and Kenta rolling on the floor and laughing so hard they’re crying but there is no laughter from Rika, only cries that keep getting louder.

“Come on,” He pleads. “Won’t you stop crying for your favorite uncle?”

“I think Jen’s brother is her favorite uncle, actually.” Takato says, pushing Ryo aside to release Rika from her safety belt and pick her up. At least she calms down a bit once she’s being carried, and her cries subside so that the shrieks finally stop and there’s only an endless stream of big, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. “He’s really good with kids.”

Ryo waves dismissively. “He doesn’t count.”

“Dude,” Hirokazu buts in. “You do realize he’s the only real uncle the kid has?”

“Hey,” Ryo protests. “I’m totally a real uncle. Ruki and I are basically siblings. We’ve got the whole younger-sister-hates-older-brother thing down.”

Kenta joins the conversation. “You spent five years trying to convince Ruki to go out with you,” He reminds Ryo. “I’d hardly call that a brother-sister relationship.”

“That is _so_ in the past,” Ryo turns to Kenta. “And I am hurt that you would bring it up. That was unnecessary.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Hirokazu says. “I bet you’re not even her favorite among the four of us. Here, Rika,” He takes the baby from Takato, and she momentarily stops crying when she realizes someone new is holding her. “See? She stopped crying for me. Who’s a good girl?” Hirokazu tickles the girl’s side as he balances her in one hand. “Who’s a good little Rika?”

The baby squeals and claps, and all is good until she reaches up and grabs Hirokazu’s hat with her newfound strength. “Dude,” Hirokazu passes the baby to a stunned Kenta as he rushes to fix the cap to hide the latest in a series of bad haircuts. “When did she learn to do that?”

“Yeah, she’s getting good at grabbing things,” Takato informs him belatedly as they turn to Kenta, waiting to see how he’ll deal with Rika. The boy is completely stunned into silence; it’s the first time he’s ever held a baby. Rika immediately quiets down, and murmurs some sort of awed sound as she looks into Kenta’s eyes. It’s a magical moment, Kenta thinks. This is the beginning of a new chapter, this is when he finds his true calling in life – the baby whisperer.

And that’s when Rika reaches out for his glasses, pulls them off and wraps her little fists around them. Before anyone can react and retrieve Kenta’s glasses, Rika flings them across the room.

“She broke my glasses!” Kenta cries, thrusting the baby into Takato’s arms. He gets down to his knees and feels around the tiled floor of the kitchen until he finds his mangled pair of glasses.

“Dude,” Hirokazu says, coming to stand next to his friend. He resigns himself to playing seeing-eye dog for the rest of the evening until he gets Kenta home to his spare glasses. “How old are those? She’s eight months old, there’s no way she threw them that hard.”

“I’ve had this pair for a very long time, okay?” Kenta raises his voice defensively, sparking off an argument between the two. Rika starts crying once more as the chaos reaches her ears, and Takato and Ryo disagree on how to calm her down.

All in all, it’s full-on chaos when Ruki and Jen return.

“What the hell is going on here?” Ruki demands as she snatches her baby out of Takato’s hands. By some miracle, Rika has completely stopped crying. Her eyes light up as soon as Ruki picks her up.

She squeals happily when she sees Jen and dozes off within seconds, content to go back to sleep now that she knows her parents are here.

“Dude,” Hirokazu whispers in awe. “Ruki has magical mommy powers!”

“She woke up an hour after you left,” Takato informs the couple quietly. “We tried everything to get her back to sleep but she wouldn’t stop crying for you two.”

“I told you she has separation anxiety,” Ruki hisses to Jen. “And what do you mean _we_?” She turns back to Takato. “As far as I remember, we left only one person in charge of our kid.”

“Um, about that,” Takato laughs nervously, scratching his head.

“I don’t even want to know,” Ruki decides before Takato can come up with a cover story, and all four of them exhale in relief. Her eyes narrow suspiciously at that, but it’s plain to see that Ruki is exhausted. She’d rather go to bed than deal with this.

“Can you show them out?” She asks Jen as he reaches out to push back strands of Rika’s copper hair.

“Sure,” Jen smiles, kissing his wife’s temple. “Why don’t you bring her back to the nursery?”

Ruki nods and after one last glare at the four would-be babysitters, she leaves the room.

“Dude,” Ryo says to no one in particular. “I thought we were _screwed_.”

“Trust me,” Jen grins as he herds everyone out of the kitchen. “You would have been, but she’s exhausted. If she finds anything out of place in the morning though…”

“There might be a substantial amount of food missing,” Kenta pipes up.

“Of course there is,” Jen sighs, holding the front door open. “Good night, guys. Make sure you’re far away from here when Ruki wakes up.”

“How’d the mission go?” Takato asks as he crosses the threshold, the last to leave.

“Everything’s alright,” Jen tells him. “We’ll probably have to question him on Monday, and if he was up to anything serious, that’ll be a case of its own. But for now, both worlds are safe.”

“That’s good to hear,” Takato smiles. “Good night, Jen.”

“Good night, Takato. And thanks for watching Rika.” The boy waves off his thanks and disappears down the hallway to catch up with the others. Jen closes the door behind him and heads for the nursery, where he finds a tucked-in, sleeping Rika and no signs of his wife. After a quiet good night to his daughter, he walks into the bedroom just as Ruki gets out of the shower. Little is said as he takes his turn in the bathroom and Ruki gets dressed for bed. When he gets into bed though, an obviously tired Ruki is struggling to stay awake as she taps out a text message.

“Yamaki?” Jen guesses, pulling the blanket up to cover the both of them.

She nods, and sighs when her phone alerts her to a reply. “He wants us to question the guy tomorrow; says it might be time-sensitive if he’s actually up to anything.” Ruki sighs again.

“It makes sense, I guess. At least Renamon will be here to watch Rika,” Jen points out to comfort his wife. “Honey,” He says just as Ruki turns to set her phone down on the nightstand. “What time is it?”

Ruki holds herself unnaturally still, and Jen pulls himself up into a sitting position as his brows furrow. “What’s wrong?”

“You just called me _honey_ ,” Ruki says quietly, turning to face him.

“Oh,” Jen replays the past minute in his head. “I guess I did.”

“Don’t worry,” Ruki assures him with a smile. “I don’t mind it; it just surprised me. And it’s twelve-forty, by the way.”

“Past midnight,” He points out, leaning in to kiss her. “Happy anniversary, Ruki.”

“Happy anniversary, _honey_ ,” She says teasingly. When Jen kisses her, Ruki’s laughing the way she used to when they were teenagers, when they thought marriage and a baby and ten years together were things they would never get to have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter to go! I doubt I’ll have that one up before midnight, but let’s see. Shout-out to Zero Unit RGB for letting me use the line 'she broke my glasses!' and for the prompt that inspired this outtake.
> 
> Merry Christmas, and I hope all of you had a wonderful time. I hope your day was filled with joy and laughter, even if today was just another normal day to some of you. Above all, I hope your day was spent with loved ones, be they friends, family or both.


	7. Seven

**Seven**

**_A year after the epilogue_ **

* * *

“I’m home!” Ruki calls out, closing the door behind her. She’s immediately greeted by the sight of Jen walking out of the kitchen with Rika in his arms, and the envelope in her hand suddenly feels ten times heavier than it did a second before.

“Mama!” Rika squeals as Jen sets her down on the floor so that she can run over to her mother. Ruki picks her up with a smile, even though the envelope is now visible to Jen as she wraps both hands around their daughter.

“Hey, where’d you go?” He asks, joining them. His eyes land upon the envelope for a brief few seconds before he looks at Ruki. “I left the kitchen for five minutes and when I got back, Renamon told me you had to run some errands.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” She smiles as Rika reaches up to tug on her hair. “I completely forgot that I had to pick something up before we left.”

“It’s okay,” Jen assures her as he slowly pries her lock of hair free from Rika’s grip. “We were just worried you might be late.”

“For this?” Today is Jen’s twenty-sixth birthday, and they’ve planned a short weekend vacation. It’s a Friday, so it was easy enough to ask Yamaki to give them the day off to prepare Rika for her first trip. Upon further inspection, Ruki notices that their daughter is already dressed. Maybe her appointment took longer than she thought it did. “I wouldn’t be late for this. I just had to get you a birthday present.”

“Birthday?” Rika echoes, finding the word familiar. Her own first birthday was four months ago, and she slept through most of the little party Seiko had insisted they hold in her honor.

“Yes, Rika,” Her mother tells her. “It’s Daddy’s birthday.”

“Ruki,” Jen smiles as he reaches out to tuck the lock of red that was previously in their daughter’s possession behind Ruki’s ear. “You know you don’t have to.”

“Well,” Ruki says, adjusting her grip on Rika so that she can balance her with one hand while the other holds the envelope out to Jen. “This isn’t the kind of gift I can just bring back to the store, so you’re going to have to deal with it.”

Jen accepts the envelope and regards her suspiciously. “Are you recycling the spa coupons your mother gave you last Christmas?”

“Just open it,” Ruki snaps with a fake glare. It isn’t until Jen opens the envelope that she realizes just how nervous she is. There’s nothing to be nervous about, of course; they’ve talked about this and she knows it’ll be the best birthday present. Still, she finds herself fussing with Rika’s hair just to keep herself busy while Jen pulls out a folded sheet of paper.

“So,” Jen grins. “What is it? A bank statement, a cable bill,” He unfolds the paper and his smile falters. “Hospital results? Ruki, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” She assures him calmly. Ruki should’ve known Jen would think of worst case scenarios as soon as he sees the hospital’s name printed across the top of the paper. “I’m perfectly fine, I promise. Just read it.”

He doesn’t seem convinced but with one last worried look at Ruki, Jen turns his focus upon the medical report.

 

**Name: Makino-Lee, Ruki                             Gender: Female**

**Age: 25 years                                              Blood-type: O positive**

**Patient complained of lethargy, dizziness, discomfort and occasional nausea accompanied by rare episodes of vomiting. Symptoms have persisted for more than a week. A blood test was ordered.**

Jen frowns. The last time Ruki complained to him of feeling under the weather was a week ago, and he hadn’t realized that she’s still sick. “Ruki, why didn’t you tell me you’re still-”

“Just read it!” Ruki orders with a nervous smile as she bites into her lower lip. Their daughter grows bored of her parents’ conversation and starts looking around the room, naming various things under her breath as she recognizes objects.

“Okay, okay,” Jen says, going back to the report.

 

**Results:**

**White blood cell count** …

Jen scans through the results, consulting the handy chart at the bottom of the page that explains the numbers. All of Ruki’s counts seem to be within normal, healthy ranges and he’s about to ask her just what’s going on when he notices two words printed in bold typeface, hovering in the blank space just above the doctor’s conclusion.

 

**PREGNANCY CONFIRMED**

The world seems to pause, then immediately launch itself into a wild spin. Jen keeps his eyes on the page, trying to ground himself. He skims through the doctor’s comments, not really processing any words other than _pregnancy confirmed._

 

**Results show that the patient is pregnant with her second child. I have referred her to her obstetrician to seek further confirmation and estimation of how advanced the pregnancy is. In conclusion, I trust the patient will find that her symptoms were caused by this pregnancy.**

“We’re having another one,” He whispers, finally looking up to meet Ruki’s nervous eyes. “We’re having another one?”

Laughter bubbles up her throat and past her lips as Ruki nods. “I’m pregnant.”

Jen starts laughing as well, mostly because he has no other way to express the awe and wonder he feels. Results still in one hand, he leans in to kiss Ruki. His brows knit together in confusion when she pulls away.

“Don’t crush the baby,” Ruki reminds him as they both turn to their puzzled child.

“Daddy?” Rika conveys her confusion in one word, eyes wide as she seeks answers. Just then, Terriermon and Renamon wander in from the kitchen. Jen takes their daughter from Ruki and presses a reassuring kiss to Rika’s forehead before he hands her to Renamon.

“Stay here just a bit,” He tells his daughter, unable to suppress the wide smile that tugs at his lips. Three pairs of questioning eyes follow Jen as he turns back to Ruki and kisses her, using his hands around her waist to lift her feet off the ground.

“What’s going on here?” Terriermon asks, turning to Renamon as Jen starts spinning Ruki around and she shrieks with laughter instead of demanding that he put her down.

The question reaches Jen’s ears and he finally puts Ruki down, the both of them flushed with joy and laughter. He snakes one arm around Ruki’s waist and kisses her cheek before he answers Terriermon’s question.

“We’re having another baby!”

* * *

**THE END**

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be the shortest thing I’ve written all year, but it felt right to start where it started and end where it ended. The series of outtakes was always meant to end here, with a slight glimpse into what the future holds for Jen, Ruki and their little family. I hope that’s enough for everyone.
> 
> Once again, I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas season. In case I don’t get the chance to say this within the next week, I wish everyone the best of luck for the coming New Year. Thanks for reading, I hope you guys enjoyed this and I’ll see you around!


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